
Glass . L=i__!_j_ia , 

Book__.tH2J3- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



\ 



LINCOLN'S PLAN OF 
RECONSTRUCTION 



Jjincoln's J^Ian of 
K^ton0truction 

By 

CHARLES H. McCARTHY 

Ph.D. (Pa.) 




McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 
MCMI 



■The LiBRARY OF 
Two Cot-ici Heceived 

NOV. 13 1901 

COPVRIOHT ENTRY 

CLASS ^a^XXa No. 

COPY a 



.Ml3 



Copyright, igoi, by 
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 



PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, I9OI 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



Page 
XV 



I 

TENNESSEE 

Election and Policy of Lincoln 

East Tennessee ...... 

Secession ....... 

Federal Victories ...... 

A Military Governor ..... 

Origin of Military Governors in the United States 

Measures of Governor Johnson 

Negro Troops ...... 

Nashville Convention of 1863 

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction . 

Steps to Restoration ..... 

Nashville Convention of 1865 
Election of William G. Brownlow . 
Nomination of Lincoln and Johnson 
Presidential Election in Tennessee . 



3 

8 
10 
II 
12 

17 
20 
21 

23 

27 

30 
32 
32 

34 



II 

LOUISIANA 



Popularity of Secession . 
Financial Embarrassment 
Capture of Nevv^ Orleans 
Lincoln's Advice . 
General Shepley appointed M 



litary Governor 



36 

37 
38 
38 
39 



CONTENTS 



Election of Representatives to Congress 
Division among Unionists 
Military Operations 
X^Lincoln Urges Reconstruction 
Political Activity among Loyalists 
Title of Louisiana Claimants . 
Opposition to General Banks 



Plan of Reconstruction proposed 

Election of 1864 . 

Inauguration of Civil Government 



Lincoln's Letter on Negro Suffrage 
\ Constitutional Convention 
Congressional Election . 



Page 

45 
47 
49 
51 
53 
58 
61 
66 
70 
72 
73 
75 
76 



III 

ARKANSAS 

Indifference to Secession 
The Fall of Sumter 
Seizure of Little Rock . 
Military Matters . 
Threat of Seceding from Secession 
General Phelps appointed Military 
Enthusiasm of Unionists 
Lincoln's Interest in Arkansas 
Inaugurating a Loyal Government 
The Election of 1864 . 



77 
78 
79 
79 
82 
82 
83 
83 
84 
90 



IV 

VIRGINIA 
Secession ...... 

Physical Features and Early Settlements . 
Society and Its Basis .... 



93 

94 
95 



CONTENTS 



vu 



The Counter-Revolution 

Convention at Wheeling 

Organizing a Union Government . 

Legislature of Restored Virginia 

The State of Kanawha .... 

Attorney-General Bates on Dismemberment 

Making a New State .... 

Compensated Emancipation . 

Formation of New State discussed in Congress 

Cabinet on Dismemberment . 

Lincoln on Dismemberment . 

Webster's Prediction .... 

Inauguration of New State 

Reorganizing the Restored State 

Right of Commonwealth to Representation in Congress 

Rupture between Civil and Military Authorities 

The President Interposes ..... 

Congress Refuses to Admit a Senator-Elect 



Page 

97 
99 

100 

103 

105 
105 
107 
108 
no 

120 
124 
126 
128 
129 

135 
138 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 

Compensated Emancipation in Congress 
Contrabands .... 

The Military Power and Fugitive Slaves 
Lincoln on Military Emancipation . 
Andrew Jackson and Nullification . 
Lincoln on Compensated Emancipation 
Compensated Emancipation in Delaware 
Abandoned Slaves 
Border Policy Propounded 
General Hunter and Military Emancipation 
Slavery Prohibited in the Territories 



143 
143 

144 
148 

151 
152 

155 

160 

163 

168 

170 



VIU 



CONTENTS 



Attitude of Border States on Slavery . . . 

Lincoln Resolves to Emancipate Slaves by Proclamation 



Page 
172 

177 



VI 

THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 

s^The Presidential Plan 190 

Sumner's Theory of State Suicide 196 

" Conquered Province " Theory of Stevens . . .211 
Theory of Northern Democrats . . . . .217 
Crittenden Resolution 220 



VII 

RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 

Bill to Guarantee a Republican Form of Government . 224 
Henry Winter Davis on Reconstruction .... 226 
House Debates on Bill of Wade and Davis . . . 236 

Pendleton's Speech on Reconstruction . . . -257 

Provisions of Wade-Davis Bill ..... 262 
Senate Debate on Bill of Wade and Davis . . . 264 

President's Pocket Veto 273 

Proclamation concerning Reconstruction . . .278 
Manifesto of Wade and Davis 279 



VIII 

AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 

President ignores Controversy with Congress . . .286 
Summary of Military and Naval Situation . . . 288 
Attempt to Revive the Pocketed Bill .... 289 
House Debates on Ashley's Reconstruction Bill . .291 
Defeat of Ashley's Bill 311 



CONTENTS 



IX 

THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 

Resolution excluding Electoral Votes of Rebellious States 

Amendment of Senator Ten Eyck . 

Senate Debate on Ten Eyck's Amendment . 

Defeat of the Amendment in favor of Louisiana 

Senate Passes Joint Resolution 

Counting the Electoral Vote . . • • 

The President's Message . . . • 



Page 
316 

334 
338 
339 
339 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 

Congressmen from Louisiana at the National Capital 
Proposal to Recognize Louisiana . 
Powell's Speech opposing Recognition . 
Henderson's Argument for Recognition . 
Howard's Argument in Opposition . 
Reverdy Johnson's Speech for Recognition 
\ General Discussion on Louisiana . 



341 
343 

344 
348 

357 
370 
374 



XI 

INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The Thirteenth Amendment . 

The Freedmen's Bureau 

Volunteer Diplomats 

The Hampton Roads Conference 

Lincoln's Letter to General Hurlbu 

Lincoln's Letter to General Canby 

Lincoln's Last Words on Reconstruction 



383 
384 
388 

394 
400 
401 

402 



CONTENTS 



XII 



\ 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL 

Lincoln and the South . 
Inauguration of Andrew Johnson 
Arkansas after the War 
>y^ Condition of Tennessee 

Louisiana .... 

Reorganization of Virginia 
The Wreck of the Confederacy 
Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction in 1864 
Johnson's Speeches after Accession to the Presidency 
Raising the Blockade 

The Executive Department Recognizes Virginia 
Restoration of North Carolina 
^ The President Hesitates 
Executive Policy in Mississippi 
Restoration of Georgia .... 

Texas ...... 

The Reconstruction Conventions . 
Temper of the South .... 

Mississippi Legislation relative to Freedmen 
V Southern Reaction .... 

Y The President's Change of Opinion 
Examination of Lincoln's Plan 



PLAN 

Page 
406 
407 
408 
411 
416 

437 
439 
443 
444 
447 
457 
459 
464 
465 
467 
471 
474 
481 
486 
490 



APPENDIX A 

Thirty-Seventh Congress . 



499 



APPENDIX B 

Thirty-Eighth Congress , 



502 



Preface 

MUCH of the material included in this volume 
was collected several years ago while the 
author was a graduate student at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. The researches then com- 
menced probably first suggested to him the lack in our 
political literature of an ample and interesting account 
of the return of the States. Students, librarians, and 
even professors of history knew no adequate treatise on 
the era of reconstruction, and their testimony was con- 
firmed by the authority of Mr. Bryce, who happily 
describes the succession of events in those crowded times 
as forming one of the most intricate chapters of Ameri- 
can history. No apology is offered, therefore, for 
considering in this essay so important and so long-neg- 
lected a theme as the rise of the political revolution that 
occurred before reunion was finally accomplished. 

On the general subject several excellent monographs 
have recently appeared; these, however, are nearly all 
employed in discussing the second stage in the process 
of restoration, and, except incidentally, anticipate 
scarcely anything of value in the present work, which, 
so far at least as concerns any logical exposition, con- 



xii PREFACE 

ducts the reader over untraveled ground. As the 
introduction indicates with sufficient accuracy both the 
scope and method of this study, nothing is required here 
beyond a concise statement of the author s obligations. 

Like many other students of American institutions, 
the writer cheerfully acknowledges his indebtedness to 
the works of Brownson, Hurd and Jameson, and, by 
transferring some of their opinions to his book, has 
shown a practical appreciation of their researches. In 
addition to these obligations, in which the author is not 
singular, he profited for four years by the lectures of 
Dr. Francis N. Thorpe, his professor in constitutional 
history. Except in a very few instances, where the 
name of an author was forgotten, credit for both sug- 
gestions and material is uniformly given in the refer- 
ences and footnotes. 

For the selection, arrangement, and treatment of 
topics the author alone is responsible ; he desires, how- 
ever, to take this opportunity of acknowledging generous 
assistance received from three intimate friends: his 
colleague. Dr. Charles P. Henry, found time in the 
midst of arduous literary engagements to read the whole 
of the manuscript and to make many valuable sugges- 
tions, especially in matters of style and diction ; the 
book is not less fortunate in having been critically read 
by Thomas J. Meagher, Esq., whose extensive and 
accurate knowledge of public as well as private law 
contributed to a more clear and scientific statement of 



PREFACE xiii 

many of the constitutional questions discussed; the 
technical skill and the superior intelligence of Mr, 
George M. Schell were of considerable assistance to the 
author in correcting the proofs of the entire book. Nor 
must he omit to record his appreciation of the courtesy 
of Mr. L. E. Hewitt, the efficient librarian of the 
Philadelphia Law Association. Finally the writer 
gratefully acknowledges his chief obligation to the schol- 
arship of his former teacher. Dr. fohn Bach Mc- 
Master, who kindly interrupted the progress of his 
great historical work long enough to read a considerable 
portion of this essay. Indeed, it was the encourage- 
ment of that eminent author which first suggested the 
publication of these pages. 

Before concluding his remarks the writer wishes to 
disclaim any sy?npathy with the progressive school of 
historical criticism, which derides the Constitution as a 
thing of the past and learnedly characterizes all vener- 
ation for its authority as the worship of a fetich. This 
book will have attained one of its principal purposes if, 
in the language of a distinguished surviving statesman 
of the war period, it will teach " the constant and ever- 
important lesson that the Constitution is always a more 
reliable guide for the legislator than those fierce passions 
which war never fails to excite.'* 

Philadelphia, September 14, 1901. 



INTRODUCTION 

SO closely blended with the essential principles of our 
federal system of government were the causes of 
the Civil War that a clear understanding of its re- 
sults appears to require some account of the origin, the 
independence and the permanent union of these States. 
Upon the eventful years between the Treaty of Paris and 
the Declaration of Independence, crowded as they are with 
work of note, one could linger with pleasure ; this epoch, 
however, has already engaged the pens of so many writers, 
eminent as well as obscure, that a re-study of the blunders 
of England's ministers and the revolt of her distant col- 
onies might justly be regarded as a piece of presumption. 

Nor does it seem necessary to recite the familiar achieve- 
ments of the succeeding period ; for, perhaps, the portion 
of American history most attractive to the general reader 
is included between the 4th of July, 1776, and the 4th of 
March, 1789. To these years belong the most conspicu- 
ous services of that giant race of leaders whose swords re- 
lieved a gallant people from oppression and whose wisdom 
established a form of government not, indeed, in universal 
harmony with popular prejudice, but admirably designed 
for the popular welfare. 

It was at the outset of what may properly be styled 
the national era that there appeared the remarkable group 
of statesmen who guided the infant Republic on its dim 
and perilous way. On their broad experience gleamed 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

a vision of the future touching all their work with elements 
of immortality. By them was skillfully established a system 
of revenue and of finance adequate to all the exigencies of 
the time, and a foreign policy inaugurated which for gen- 
erations together preserved unbroken harmony with the 
world outside. They doubled by wise and peaceful acqui- 
sition the area of that Union whose independence had been 
wrested from George the Third, and with no less wisdom 
prescribed the procedure and defined the jurisdiction of 
Federal courts. 

The forty years following March 4, 1789, form an 
epoch with characteristics of its own. This was the period 
of Virginian ascendency, the Adamses alone breaking the 
line of illustrious Presidents furnished by the Old Domin- 
ion. Introduced by an experiment in government which 
aroused the slumbering energies of the nation, its conclu- 
sion was marked by the disappearance from political life 
of the splendid ideals and rich traditions of the Fathers. 

The election of General Jackson coincides with the be- 
ginning of a new phase in American political and industrial 
development. It was not that the fame of a splendid 
military record had raised its possessor to an office for 
which long experience in governmental aflfairs had hitherto 
been thought indispensable, or that the selection of Presi- 
dents had passed from an intellectual few to the control of 
a much more numerous class who were willing to bestow 
on politics the attention and energy requisite for success in 
trade ; but it was about this time that the imperious power of 
slavery entered upon its career of aggression. Philosophic 
statesmen of a previous epoch had ardently hoped that the 
institution would be permitted quietly to disappear ; indeed, 
the greatest among them, though divided upon a multitude 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

of political and economic questions, agreed in encouraging 
every movement designed for its extinction. These hu- 
mane efforts, however, were not destined to win immediate 
success, and even with the cooperation of the General 
Government served only to demonstrate the difficulty of 
such an undertaking. 

After 1820 all the dangers which menaced the integrity 
of the Union were, with one notable exception, traceable 
to this cause. When Mr. Lincoln in his discussions with 
Senator Douglas declared that it was the sole cause of all 
the troubles which had disturbed the nation, he meant, 
probably, to assert no more than that in his own time it had 
been the most conspicuous one. 

Long before slavery became a subject of embittered con- 
troversy the doctrine of State Rights had agitated the 
country. As early as the summer of 1793 it had found in 
Justice Iredell an able advocate on the bench of the United 
States Supreme Court. For party purposes it was adopted 
five years later by Madison and Jefferson in the celebrated 
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, and during the second 
war with Great Britain these statesmen were startled to 
find New England Federalism vindicating its unpatriotic, 
if not treacherous, conduct in the exact language which 
they had invented to embarrass a former administration. 
With this instrument, too, Calhoun in 1832 shook the 
foundations of the Union. Both Northern and Southern 
statesmen of that generation, however, pushed the principle 
of State sovereignty as far only as their immediate object 
seemed to require. 

It is a popular mistake to suppose that beyond the 
limits of the South this erroneous doctrine found little 
favor in the minds of men; for on the eve of the War of 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

1 8 1 2 a Governor of conservative Pennsylvania had armed 
her citizen-soldiers against Federal power. 

The illustrious Marshall could relate how, before the 
highest tribunal in the land, its champions with unwearied 
zeal renewed the battle for a hopeless cause. The eloquent 
voice of Webster hushed for a time the fretful agitation of 
South Carolina statesmen, and his genius fixed in imper- 
ishable literary form that interpretation of the Constitution 
which called forth the abundant resources of both the 
Nation and the States. In his conquering words lived 
those elevated thoughts that in future years sustained the 
defenders of the Republic. 

President Jackson, for the energy and promptness by 
which he defeated the projects of the Nullifiers, has been 
justly eulogized ; but, when the excitement of the hour 
had passed away, the calmer judgment of even his admir- 
ers perceived that victory inclined rather to the side of 
Calhoun. 

Discussion of the abstract question of State sovereignty 
might, probably, have long continued without endanger- 
ing the Union had the principle not been invoked to de- 
fend the institution of human servitude; yoked to that 
powerful interest it was inevitable that both should go 
down together in undistinguishable ruin. 

From the Protean fount of slavery flowed an hundred 
various streams coloring almost every important question 
in the tide of events. In the generation between the 
election of General Jackson and the inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln its defeats were few, its triumphs numerous and 
important. Prosperity revealed its weaknesses and en- 
couraged its experiments. The fruits of its greatest vic- 
tory, the dismemberment of Mexico, revived those stormy 



INTRODUCTION xix 

scenes which thirty years before had for the first time been 
witnessed in an American legislative hall. Dissolution of 
the Union was once more threatened, and again averted 
by the genius and patriotism of the venerable triumvirate, 
who scarce outlived their noble work ; but the compromise 
from which Clay, Calhoun and Webster expected a restora- 
tion of former tranquillity contained within itself the very 
seed-plot of even graver troubles. 

After 1850 the attachment of Southern men to their in- 
dustrial system was played upon by ambitious politicians 
more and more, until the final overthrow of themselves 
and the government which they sought to establish for its 
preservation. It could be shown how before that time 
one war was prolonged for the protection, and another 
undertaken chiefly for the extension, of that aggressive 
institution ; how its existence was supposed to require 
Federal interference with the mails and an abridgment of 
even the ancient right of petition. Every power of the 
national Government and all the resources of the cotton 
States had been employed for its advantage. 

The United States Supreme Court was the last agent 
within the Union by which its advocates sought to dignify 
and perpetuate human servitude, and so successful were 
their efforts that an enlightened and humane Chief Justice 
was but little misrepresented in language or in sentiment 
when political opponents ascribed to him the doctrine 
that " the negro has no rights which the white man is 
bound to respect." 

The moral progress of the United States during the 
last forty years finds, probably, in no single event a better 
illustration than the change in public opinion upon the 
interesting question of human rights. When the majority 



XX INTRODUCTION 

opinion was delivered in the Dred Scott case it excited 
among members of the dominant poHtical party but little 
surprise. The shock which a judicial utterance of such 
sentiments would give in our time to the ethical notions 
of the American people affords at once both a measure of 
the advance that has been made in the interval and an 
undoubted proof that progress has not been, as is com- 
monly supposed, exclusively or even mainly along material 
lines. It is singular, too, that the first serious attempt of 
the Federal Supreme Court to set at rest a dangerous 
political question should have been followed by effects of 
so alarming a tendency. 

It is not intended to relate in these pages the origin or 
the fate of those compromises designed to avoid the in- 
evitable conflict already in the closing months of President 
Buchanan's administration casting ominous shadows in the 
pathway of the nation, nor to describe the uncertain policy 
of the General Government or attempt to determine the 
measure of its responsibility for the fearful rebellion which 
that hesitation encouraged. 

The skill and industry of a multitude of laborers have 
gathered from the field of conflict a harvest as bountiful as 
the result was satisfactory. We have general histories 
and bird's-eye views, military accounts and naval accounts 
of the Civil War ; memoirs and diaries, by actors more or 
less prominent in the events which they describe, and nar- 
ratives of battles and of sieges. In this varied and ample 
field even a belated worker might hope to glean some- 
thing of value ; but this study, whatever it may discuss 
incidentally, will be chiefly concerned with the subject of 
Reconstruction, a phase of our political and constitutional 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

development which, though beginning during the progress, 
lies mainly beyond the close of the Rebellion. 

The organization into a separate government of the late 
Confederate States, with their resolute struggle for inde- 
pendency, is the chief event in the extraordinary career 
of this favored nation. The story of their submission to 
Federal power and the return to their former places in the 
Union is not inferior either in interest or instruction to 
any political event recorded in history. This return is 
what is commonly known as Reconstruction. Though 
the term on its introduction into political discussion was 
frequently objected to as inaccurate, it has been generally 
adopted in the writings of publicists as well as in popular 
speech. The word " restoration," which was at first pre- 
ferred, was soon found to be inexact ; for while former re- 
lations were resumed by the erring States, they came back, 
one with diminished territorial extent and all with domestic 
rights greatly abridged. They had, in fact, been recon- 
structed. It is true that even the loyal States did not 
emerge unscathed from this political revolution. In the 
South, however, the established industrial system had been 
swept completely away. 

The theme falls naturally under two heads. Presidential 
Reconstruction and Congressional Reconstruction. An 
account of the former, which extended from the summer 
of 1 86 1 to the autumn of 1865, occupies the whole of this 
volume. Any adequate treatment of the latter, including 
as it does the eventful period from the meeting of Con- 
gress in December, 1865, to the withdrawal of Federal 
forces from the South in 1877, will require a narrative 
somewhat more ample. 

The conspicuous landmarks of Reconstruction require 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

no extraordinary talent to recognize and locate. It is the 
unfamiliar region between that is difficult accurately to 
map out. The failure hitherto to present in a single view 
the striking features of these neglected parts is chiefly 
responsible for the fact that Reconstruction remains one 
of the most obscure parts of our history. A candid and 
comprehensive account of the political events of the time 
appears to divest the subject of much of the difficulty 
commonly supposed to attend its investigation. From a 
sufficient body of essential facts the step to an under- 
standing and exposition of every principle of moment is 
comparatively easy. 

Though the general design of this volume will be sug- 
gested to the student of American history by an inspection 
of its principal subdivisions, it may not be unnecessary for 
the benefit of the general reader to add a brief outline of 
the plan that has been adopted. 

Chapter I. relates the most important political events 
in the history of Tennessee from its attempted secession 
to the restoration, in March, 1865, of a civil government 
loyal to the United States. Military movements in that 
Commonwealth have been noticed only so far as to render 
intelligible the successive steps by which that reorganiza- 
tion was accomplished. 

Chapters II. and III. bring the affairs of Louisiana 
and Arkansas, respectively, down to about the same time. 
Events in those States have been treated, so far as con- 
ditions permitted, in the same manner as in the case of 
Tennessee. 

Chapter IV. is concerned with the secession, restoration 
and dismemberment of Virginia. The formation out of a 
portion of that Commonwealth of the new State of West 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

Virginia, both because of the grave constitutional question 
which arose on a division of the parent State and the 
intrinsic interest of the subject, has been considered with 
some degree of minuteness. 

In Chapter V., which discusses anti-slavery legislation, 
it will appear how Mr. Lincoln, though never an Aboli- 
tionist or even a radical Republican, became by pressure 
of military necessity an instrument in the hands of God 
to destroy an institution opposed by a long line of 
American statesmen and condemned by the light of the 
nineteenth century. 

The succeeding chapter considers the various theories 
and plans of restoration presented during the progress of 
the war. The rise of the Congressional plan, which 
ultimately prevailed, is treated separately in Chapter VII. 
Only the first stage of its development, however, falls 
within the limits of this inquiry, which ends with the 
meeting of the Thirty-ninth Congress in December, 
1865. 

Chapters VIII., IX. and X. trace the progress of the 
controversy between the Legislative and the Executive 
branches of Government. The culmination of this diflFer- 
ence, however, in the impeachment and trial of President 
Johnson is a phase of Congressional Reconstruction. 

The topics treated in the eleventh chapter, having fre- 
quently employed the pens of able and popular writers on 
the Rebellion, are considered in this study merely for the 
purpose of making it complete in itself; hence that section 
is little more than an epitome of what has already been 
said on those subjects. 

The twelfth and last chapter brings every part of the 
narrative up to December 4, 1865. To clearly compre- 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

hcnd the arduous task that confronted President Johnson 
this section includes a rapid survey of the wreck of the 
Confederate States. The principal part, however, is re- 
served for an account of the conventions assembled under 
his authority, the method of instituting loyal governments 
and the spirit and tendency of Southern legislation rela- 
tive to freedmen. An examination of the Presidential 
plan of Reconstruction completes the volume. 



Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction 



TENNESSEE 

WHILE the celebrated joint debates with Senator 
Douglas in 1858, the Cooper Union and other 
addresses, marked Mr. Lincoln, in the new politi- 
cal party just rising to power, as the intellectual peer of able 
and trusted leaders like Sumner, Chase and Seward, his con- 
servative opinions on the subject of slavery made his nomina- 
tion by the Chicago Convention more acceptable to delegates 
from the border States. Though his competitors received, in 
the memorable contest which followed, almost a million votes 
in excess of the number cast for Mr. Lincoln and his associate, 
the fierce conflict among fragments of the Democratic party 
resulted, as is well known, in the choice of a decided majority 
of Republican electors.^ This rather unexpected defeat of a 
political organization that had lost but two Presidential con- 
tests since its first success under Jefferson afforded Southern 
leaders a pretext for urging a dismemberment of the Union. 
Indeed, there is evidence that the more impetuous among them 
had, four years earlier, seriously determined, in case of Fre- 
mont's election, upon a similar course.^ Thus the present 

* McPherson's Political History of the United States, p. i. 

*^cPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 389-399; "Parson" Brownlow's Book, 
pp. 54, 159, 160; Lalor's Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Econ- 
omy and United States History, Vol. HI. p. 698. 



2 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

event, so far from being an universal disappointment to mem- 
bers of the defeated party, had been ardently hoped for by 
many. 

The choice of a minority party, and not at first possessing 
the entire confidence of even that minority, Mr. Lincoln, un- 
able to divine the future, was compelled in dealing with the 
insurrection to proceed with the utmost caution. Washing- 
ton himself, in organizing the Federal Government, had a 
task of less magnitude, and the renown of his military achieve- 
ments silenced for a time even the boldest in opposition. 
President Lincoln's victories, gained on a different field, gave 
no such unquestioned authority to his name. This peculiar 
situation forced him to adopt for the guidance of his adminis- 
tration a policy not altogether free from embarrassment to 
both himself and his successor. His purpose at that time 
appears to have been to meet the demands of the moment by 
the contrivances of the moment.' Whether a different course 
would have been rewarded by earlier or by more complete 
success is a hazardous subject for speculation. If his theory 
of our national existence be liable to the multitude of objec- 
tions which have grown up in these fruitful times of peace, no 
other has been suggested that is free from criticism. His 
political doctrine, too, had the advantage of always recom- 
mending measures scarcely less distinguished for enlarged 
views than those enlightened convictions which characterize 
his first inaugural address. Whatever may be concluded of 
its merits, the theory embraced at the outset exerted on many 
administrative acts of President Lincoln an influence that 
continued to be felt during his entire executive career; and 
without remembering this fact we shall not easily compre- 
hend either the extent of his " Border Policy," as the plan of 
compensated emancipation is often called, or his undoubted 
concern for persecuted Union men in the seceded States. 

The sufferings of loyal citizens in East Tennessee had early 



TENNESSEE 3 

enlisted the President's sympathies, and almost from the com- 
mencement of hostilities measures for their relief formed in 
his mind part of the plan of operations by the army under 
General Buell. Writing, January 6, 1862, to that commander 
he gives reasons for suggesting the occupation of some point 
there rather than Nashville, and adds : " But my distress is 
that our friends in East Tennessee are being hanged and 
driven to despair, and even now, I fear, are thinking of taking 
rebel arms for the sake of personal protection. In this we 
lose the most valuable stake we have in the South." ^ The 
cause of these outrages may be briefly explained in a di- 
gression. 

In no part of the late Confederate States was the slave 
interest more feeble than in the thirty counties comprising 
East Tennessee.^ That portion of the State contained in i860 
slightly over 300,000 inhabitants,^ of whom only about one 
tenth were slaves, while in many counties they formed no 
more than one in seventeen of the population. Here and 
there, indeed, were persons of wealth some of whom owned 
a few negroes. But though a majority of the people looked 
upon domestic slavery as something foreign to their social 
life, they had no strong philanthropic impulse to oppose it. 
While quite willing to allow their countrymen elsewhere to 
keep bondmen at pleasure, they did not regard it any concern 
of theirs to assist either in extending or perpetuating human 
servitude. If the existence of the Union or of slavery was 
the issue, they would have hesitated little in deciding which 
should perish. Though, as we shall presently see, they were 
as intolerant of the Republican party as any community in 
the South, they were devotedly attached to the Union. The 

* Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 112. The 
edition of; Nicolay and Hay is used throughout. 

' The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee, p. 24. 

* More correctly, 301,056. Ibid. 



4 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

fact is partly explained by the industrial basis of society in 
this favored region. 

Cut off from Middle Tennessee by lofty ranges of the 
Cumberland, and from North Carolina by the Great Smoky, 
the Black and the Stone mountains, this extensive district is 
traversed in its entire length by the Tennessee and its chief 
tributaries, the Clinch and the Holston; as the great river 
flows down to Alabama it receives, before turning west and 
north to join the Ohio, the waters of many important and 
beautiful streams, some of which, as the French Broad and 
Nolachucky, are associated with deeds of note in the War 
for Independence; indeed, one of its crowning victories was 
chiefly won by settlers from the banks of the Watauga. 
Other names, like Hiwassee, are familiar to readers of later 
events in Tennessee history, and Chickamauga Creek was 
destined shortly to become more famous than any. 

Knoxville, in early times a capital of the State, was, in 
i860, the metropolis of East Tennessee; Chattanooga, at the 
southern extremity of the valley, is separated from Bristol, on 
the Virginia line, by a distance of more than two hundred and 
forty miles; Cleveland and Greenville were towns of less 
importance. The absence of large cities makes it evident that 
manufacturing had not yet begun to attract serious attention. 
Like early settlers everywhere in America, the pioneers of 
Tennessee sought the most immediate returns from the prod- 
ucts of the forests and fields around them. The rich mineral 
deposits, then either unknown or almost untouched, had not 
given rise to those great extractive operations which in our 
time have so stimulated the commercial life of East Ten- 
nessee. Vast cotton plantations, worked by multitudes of 
slaves, like those in the western portion of the State, had no 
existence in these mountain valleys, though occasionally small 
" patches " were cultivated for domestic use. 

Citizens of West Tennessee would naturally place upon the 
Federal Constitution an interested construction; their indus- 



TENNESSEE 5 

tries, they believed, required such an interpretation of that 
instrument as would place the institution of slavery beyond 
the reach of Congressional interference. While the people 
of East Tennessee, too, believed in the several sovereignty of 
the States, the question of slavery did not touch them so 
nearly. Indifferent to the subject themselves, they had little 
sympathy with those who had determined to break up the 
Union from a mere suspicion that their interests were men- 
aced by the success of a new political party. But to ascribe 
to the want of interested motives their indifference to the 
great disturbing question of the time would be to assign 
but one and that, perhaps, not the chief cause. 

Except on its northern and southern boundaries this de- 
lightful region is practically isolated from several adjacent 
States as well as from the remainder of Tennessee. It was in 
this by-place of nature and amidst such a population that The 
Manumission Intelligencer, a weekly newspaper, made its 
appearance in 1819.^ It was followed the next year by The 
Emancipator of Elijah Embree, a Pennsylvania Quaker; this 
in turn was soon succeeded by a more celebrated publication. 
The Genius of Universal Emancipation, conducted by Ben- 
jamin Lundy. While these publications served to perpetuate 
and to extend, they did not create the sentiment of which they 
became exponents, for, several years before their appearance, 
an anti-slavery society flourished in Jefferson County. Its 
existence is noticed as early as 1814-2 This anti-slavery feel- 
ing was part of the philosophic movement encouraged by 
nearly all Southern as well as Northern statesmen before 
the inauguration of General Jackson. A new industrial era, 
beginning about that time, put an end to the abolition socie- 
ties in the South; and though Lundy's paper was discontinued 
in Tennessee after 1824, events of frequent occurrence sus- 
tained the anti-slavery sentiments of the people. 

* The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee, p. 32. 
' Ibid. 



6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The Tennessee valley was a natural thoroughfare from Vir- 
ginia to the south-west, and when slaves were purchased on 
the Potomac they were chained together, to prevent escape, 
and in that condition driven to the homes of their new 
masters.^ The plaintive songs of captives as they were 
marched in lines along the valley highways often caused the 
free mountaineer to pause in his labors and reflect on what 
was passing before his eyes. He " saw slavery in its bitter- 
ness and without disguise." The remembrance of such 
spectacles was apt to strengthen in him anti-slavery feelings 
that had come down from Revolutionary times. But whether 
Southern leaders ascribed the sentiment to an inherited tend- 
ency or regarded it as a consequence of this odious phase of 
the domestic slave-trade, they did not think it beneath the 
dignity of attention; for it was, doubtless, to create a sym- 
pathy for their institution that a " Southern Commercial 
Convention " was held at Knoxville in 1857. It was too late, 
however, to root out the convictions of two generations; the 
counsels of the wise were soon to be confounded and the 

* Thirty years before President Lincoln published his Emancipation 
Proclamation Great Britain abolished slavery throughout her colonies. 
Naturally this action was viewed in no friendly spirit by the slave inter- 
est in America, for it brought the free negro to the very door of the 
Southern States, and though it was regarded as a menace to the " pecul- 
iar institution," it was not until a positive loss was sustained that any 
controversy arose with England. In October, 1841, the brig Creole, of 
Richmond, with a cargo of 135 slaves left Hampton Roads for New 
Orleans. The negroes, under Madison Washington, killed one of the 
owners, took possession of the vessel and steered her into the port of 
Nassau. There those slaves not expressly charged with murder were set 
at liberty, and though the administration demanded their surrender 
they were not given up. The experience of the Creole was not singular, 
several cases of a similar nature being recorded. These facts showed 
the danger of navigating the Bahama channel after 1833, and at least 
one reason for preferring the overland route down the Tennessee valley 
was an expectation of avoiding such accidents. — (See Wilson's Rise and 
Fall of the Slave Power, Vol. I. pp. 443-444; Lalor's Cyclopedia of Po- 
litical Science, etc., Vol. I. pp. 709-710.) 



TENNESSEE 7 

fretful agitation of leaders soon to be hushed in the tempest 
of war. 

No Republican electoral ticket was presented in the great 
political battle of i860 for the suffrage of Tennessee voters, 
and had any citizen openly advocated the election of Mr. 
Lincoln he would have had to endure insult or injury, or to 
abandon his home. This explains why the successful candi- 
dates received no vote in all the State. As " Parson " 
Brownlow, selecting extreme abolition and secession types, 
characteristically expressed it, his people were equally 
opposed to the William L, Garrisons and the William L. Yan- 
ceys of politics.* In this situation the supporters of Bell, 
Breckenridge and Douglas were left to contend for victory 
among themselves. Addresses of the time reveal not only 
the emotions of individual speakers, but the excited state 
of public opinion. The attitude of Constitutional Union 
men was vigorously stated in a debate at Knoxville by Na- 
thaniel G. Taylor, an elector on the Bell and Everett ticket. 
" The people of East Tennessee," said the orator, " are de- 
termined to maintain the Union by force of arms against 
any movement from the South throughout their region of 
country to assail the government at Washington with vio- 
lence, and that the secessionists of the cotton States in at- 
tempting to carry out their nefarious design to destroy the 
Republic would have to march over his dead body and the 
dead bodies of thousands of East Tennessee mountaineers 
slain in battle."^ 

When Yancey came up from Alabama to " precipitate " this 
section into rebellion the intrepid Brownlow made a similar 
reply. ^ The energy or the elegance of such utterances may 
be questioned, but the deeds of loyal Tennesseeans during 

* Brownlow's Book, p. 52. 

* The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee, pp. 80-81. 
' Brownlow's Book, p. 67. 



8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

eventful years to follow are evidence alike of the sincerity of 
the speakers and their insight into the temper of the times. 

Except Tennessee, all the States that attempted secession 
did so by means of revolutionary bodies styled conventions; 
this description of them is justified both by the general powers 
of administration and government which they assumed and 
by the fact that the legislatures in convoking them tran- 
scended their authority, the members of every State legisla- 
ture being " bound by oath or affirmation to support " the 
Federal Constitution, which forms a part of the fundamental 
law of each commonwealth. Though the Legislature of 
Tennessee, following the example of law-making bodies in 
other disloyal States, passed a " Convention Bill," it was 
promptly defeated by a majority of 13,204 in a total vote of 
more than 120,000. Notwithstanding the constitutional pro- 
hibition that " no State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, 
or confederation," ^ the Legislature on May i authorized 
Governor Harris to appoint commissioners to form a military 
league with the Confederate States. Six days later the rela- 
tions entered into by these agents were ratified in a secret 
session, the State government thereby turning over tempo- 
rarily to the President of the Confederacy its entire military 
force. These matters disposed of, the plans of disunionists 
were completed by the passage on the same day of a declara- 
tion of independence and an ordinance dissolving all Federal 
relations between Tennessee and the United States. Though 
this measure was to be voted upon a month later, the Legis- 
lature, as if anticipating the result, adopted and ratified the 
Confederate constitution. What was so ardently desired by 
secessionists was finally accomplished, and on June 24 the 
Governor declared his State out of the Union, the vote being 
104,019 for, and 47,238 against, separation. ^ The Tennes- 

* Art. I. sec. 10, Constitution of the United States. 
'McPherson's Pol. Hist.,p. 5. 



TENNESSEE 9 

see Legislature did not assume the functions of a secession 
convention till after the commencement of hostilities; but 
from that date the forms of law ceased to be seriously re- 
garded. While the disunion party scored a present triumph, 
loyalist leaders like Horace Maynard, Thomas A. R. Nelson 
and Andrew Johnson, at the imminent risk of injury or even 
of death, were speaking and working actively against the 
spirit of secession. The strong Union feeling thus excited re- 
sulted ultimately in local insurrections and in the meeting, 
June 17, of a convention at Greeneville in which a remon- 
strance was adopted and a committee appointed to petition the 
Legislature for the separation of East Tennessee and such 
counties of Middle Tennessee as were willing to cooperate in 
the formation of a new commonwealth. But the presence 
there during the following years of veteran Confederate 
armies prevented Union men from organizing a separate gov- 
ernment, and saved :he State from the fate of Virginia. 
All who were known to have had a connection, or who were 
suspected of sympathy, with this movement were especially 
obnoxious to the secession party, and at the hands of soldiers 
were subjected to many indignities. In various ways the 
feeling of opposition to the Confederacy was intensified, and 
it was not long before measures of retaliation were considered. 
Union people were quick to perceive the advantage which the 
South derived from the use of railways within the State, and, 
in expectation of assistance from Federal forces in Kentucky, 
five railroad bridges were burned. East Tennesseeans, how- 
ever, were destined to be sorely disappointed in the matter of 
aid from the Union army ; and, without effective organization 
or arms, were easily captured or dispersed. Of the former, 
many were sent as prisoners of war to Alabama, hundreds 
were crowded into loathsome jails in the State and others 
hanged, with circumstances of deliberate cruelty, near the 
scenes of their alleged crimes. 



10 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

These were among the outrages to which Mr. Lincoln 
referred in his letter to the Federal commander. By Horace 
Maynard a Representative, and Andrew Johnson a Senator, 
in Congress the President was kept very accurately informed 
of events in the State and often importuned to relieve their 
constituents. This he constantly endeavored to do, but his 
intentions were effectually defeated by the inactivity of Gen- 
eral Buell, who cherished other plans for destroying his 
antagonist. More than two years were to elapse, from the 
time President Lincoln urged his policy, before Tennesseeans 
received any aid from Federal armies; long before that time 
they had been ruthlessly punished for their patriotism, and 
then their oppressors were chastised by the hand of an abler 
warrior than General Buell. 

Within a month from the date of President Lincoln's letter 
of January 6 General Grant had possession of Fort Henry and, 
ten days later, February i6, received the surrender of Fort 
Donelson. Nashville, becoming unsafe, was evacuated on 
February 23, 1862; the State appeared for the first time to 
be slipping from the grasp of the Confederacy, and a question, 
hitherto more or less academic, presented itself for practical 
settlement. In the territory from which hostile armies were 
reluctantly retiring there would be involved a great derange- 
ment in the administration of local civil law from the neces- 
sary displacement there of all officials heretofore acting in 
obedience to the Confederate States. 

By other Union victories in the Spring of 1862 the same 
situation confronted the Federal Government in Arkansas, 
in North Carolina and in Louisiana. Indeed, this identical 
question arose as early as 1861 in Virginia and Missouri, 
but in the former the rebel government was abrogated by a 
delegate convention that restored a loyal government from 
which in due time sprang the separate State of West Virginia. 
In Missouri a lawfully chosen convention appointed a pro- 



TENNESSEE ii 

visional government in sympathy with the Union. This sub- 
ject, however, will be more conveniently discussed elsewhere. 

When General Johnston received tidings of the disaster 
at Donelson he retired with his army to Murfreesboro, leav- 
ing Nashville, which he was unable to protect, a scene of 
panic and dismay, first advising Governor Harris to secure 
the public archives and convoke the Legislature elsewhere. It 
was in these circumstances that President Lincoln, on the 
same day, February 23, nominated, and the Senate, March 5, 
1862, confirmed, Andrew Johnson as military governor of 
Tennessee with the rank of brigadier-general. As the com- 
mission antedates the action of the Senate by two days the 
President, no doubt, consulted the leaders of that body rela- 
tive to the contemplated nomination, and received assurance 
of its favorable consideration. 

Nothing in any way connected with the appointment of 
Senator Johnson, who was destined to act so conspicuous a 
part in the important and difificult work of reconstruction, can 
fail to be of interest, and any account of the execution of his 
office would be incomplete without some observations on the 
nature of his commission of which the following is a copy : 

War Department, March 3, 1862. 
To the Hon. Andrew Johnson : 

Sir : You are hereby appointed military governor of the State of Ten- 
nessee, with authority to exercise and perform, within the limits of that 
State, all and singular the powers, duties, and functions pertaining to 
the office of military governor, including the power to establish all neces- 
sary offices, tribunals, etc. 

Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War?- 

Quoting the essential part of this document a recent co- 
operative work has this comment : " The office [that of mili- 
tary governor] was new to the laws and history of the State 

^Misc. Doc. No. 55, H. of R,,i Sess. 39th Cong., p. 5. 



12 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and country. Its powers and duties were limited only by the 
will of one man, the occupant." ^ From the commission itself 
we derive our prime conception of both the nature of the 
office and the functions which it comprehended. The au- 
thority of the incumbent extended to the exercise, within the 
limits of Tennessee, of all " the powers, duties, and functions 
pertaining to the office of military governor." Nothing in 
this language implies that the office was of recent creation. 
Nor is its nature to be discovered by a perusal of the supple- 
mental authority contained in the President's letter of Sep- 
tember 19, 1863, to Governor Johnson, for the official con- 
duct of the latter on his arrival in Nashville can not be seri- 
ously thought to have been influenced by instructions re- 
ceived nineteen months later. It is perfectly true, as Mr. Ira 
P. Jones, author of the chapter on Reconstruction in Tennes- 
see, asserts, that the office of military governor had never 
been exercised within that State; but it is not a fact that it 
was new to the laws and history of the " country," if by this 
indefinite expression he means the United States. During 
the war with Mexico the American people had been made 
familiar with military commissions and with military gover- 
nors. Secretary Marcy prepared, June 3, 1846, for General 
Stephen W. Kearny the following instructions : " Should 
you conquer and take possession of New Mexico and Upper 
California, or considerable places in either, you will establish 
temporary civil governments therein." ^ To this direction 
general rules of conduct were added, and the letter authorized 
the assurance that " It is the wish and design of the United 
States to provide for them [the people of New Mexico] a 
free government with the least possible delay, similar to that 
which exists in our Territories." By virtue of this authority 
General Kearny appointed Charles Bent governor of New 

* Why The Solid South? p. 170. 

* Cutt'g Conquest of California and New Mexico, p. 246. 



TENNESSEE 



13 



Mexico. Mr. Polk in his Message of July 6, 1848, to Con- 
gress maintained that with the termination of war his power 
to establish temporary civil governments over New Mexico 
and California had ceased ; the legality of their previous exist- 
ence he justified by the law of nations. By cession to the 
United States, the government of Mexico no longer pre- 
tended to any control over them.^ President Polk, differing 
from other leaders of his party, held that " until Congress 
shall act, the inhabitants will be without any organized gov- 
ernment." 2 But Congress, notwithstanding urgent appeals 
of the Executive, moved very deliberately in the matter of 
abolishing the office of military governor. In May, 1847, 
Colonel Richard B. Mason assumed the office of Governor and 
commander-in-chief of the United States forces in California. 
Two months after ratification of the treaty with Mexico he 
received notice of the fact, but no intimation that the civil 
government instituted by the President was discontinued. 
Without other instructions than an order to extend over 
California " the revenue laws and tariff of the United States " 
he, as well as his successor, General Riley, continued the 
existing government. 

After affirming the legality of its institution the United 
States Supreme Court (Cross vs. Harrison, p. 193, 16 How- 
ard) says that the existing government did not cease as a 
consequence of the restoration of peace; the President might 
have dissolved it, but he did not do so. Congress could have 
put an end to it, but that was not done. " The right inference 
from the inaction of both is, that it was meant to be con- 
tinued until it had been legislatively changed." In fact it 
was so continued until the people in convention formed a 
government, subsequently recognized by Congress, when Cali- 
fornia was admitted during the autumn of 1850 as a State. 

* Statesman's Manual, Vol. IV. p. 1742. 
' Ibid. 



14 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The authority, then, of both poHtical departments, as well 
as the more deliberate opinion of the judicial branch, of the 
General Government had established a precedent with which 
Mr. Lincoln was thoroughly familiar; for, by a singular co- 
incidence, both he and Mr. Johnson were serving together in 
the Thirtieth Congress, which began its first session in De- 
cember, 1847. They participated in, or were interested spec- 
tators of, all those stirring scenes that marked the beginning 
of one of the last legislative victories of slavery; so that this 
portion at least of American history was not strange to either 
the President or the Senator from Tennessee. 

The question whether Tennessee was within or without 
the Union will be reserved for more ample discussion farther 
on; it is sufficient to observe here that its territory was held 
by an adverse party and its government hostile to the national 
authority. If the administration of Colonel Mason and his 
successor in California was not regarded by President Lin- 
coln as a sufficient basis for his action there was still left an 
undoubted foundation. The appointment was deemed an 
element of strength to the Union forces operating in Tennes- 
see, and, in this view, the act was entirely within the power 
of the President as Commander-in-Chief of the army and 
navy of the United States. Though its wisdom may be ques- 
tioned and its results dismissed with a sneer, it was not a 
novelty nor can his admirers claim for Mr. Lincoln the merit 
of its invention; and if in its origin the office had a bearing 
on the extension, its present application was not wholly un- 
connected with the abolition of slavery. The remaining pages 
of this chapter and the two succeeding ones will be employed 
in tracing rapidly the operation of the system of military 
governors in those States in which it was seriously attempted 
to be enforced. 

The movements of contending armies had already obliter- 
ated in many districts of Tennessee almost every trace of civil 



TENNESSEE 15 

government, and when State officials hurried away to Mem- 
phis, where Governor Harris had reassembled the Legisla- 
ture, they left behind them an uncontrolled mob which Gen- 
eral Forrest found it necessary to charge with his cavalry to 
remove a portion of Confederate military stores that had not 
been distributed among the poor or perished in the prevailing 
anarchy.^ General Grant had already, on February 22, from 
Fort Donelson, issued an order that " no courts will be al- 
lowed to act under State authority, but all cases coming 
within reach of the military arm will be adjudicated by the 
authorities the Government has established within the State. 
Martial law is therefore declared to extend over West Tennes- 
see." The order added, " whenever a sufficient number of 
citizens return to their allegiance to maintain law and order 
over the territory, the military restriction here indicated 
will be removed." 2 Union troops under General Nelson 
having occupied the city on the 25th, Governor Johnson on 
his arrival, March 12, 1862, from his seat in the United 
States Senate was not under the necessity of employing the 
harsh discipline of General Forrest to restore order in the 
deserted capital. For this part of his career he was, how- 
ever, severely censured by political adversaries in Tennessee. 
Detached from their historical settings, indeed, his acts could 
justly be described as tyrannical. But it is precisely these 
figures in the back-ground that are necessary to harmonize 
the whole and set before us in its proper light a truthful pic- 
ture of the times. As his professions preceded his adminis- 
trative acts it is proper to introduce this portion of the sub- 
ject by quoting from a speech which he delivered in Nash- 
ville the evening after his arrival. Five days later, March 18, 
it was printed under the style of " An Appeal to the People " 
of Tennessee. After some general observations on the tran- 

* The Lost Cause, p. 209. 

* Ann. Cycl.,1862, p, 763. 



1 6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

quil and prosperous existence of the State in the Union, and 
on the honors by which many of her sons had been distin- 
guished, he noticed the fact that the very leaders of secession 
themselves had been the recipients of Federal bounty and 
patronage; had taken oaths to support the Constitution and 
yet labored to overturn Federal authority. Entering fairly 
upon his theme, he continued : 

Meanwhile the State Government has disappeared. The Executive 
has abdicated; the Legislature has dissolved; the Judiciary is in abey- 
ance. The great ship of State , . . has been suddenly abandoned 
by its officers and mutinous crew, and left to float at the mercy of the 
winds, and to be plundered by every rover upon the deep. 

Pausing to enumerate many acts of spoliation, he resumes : 

In such a lamentable crisis the Government of the United States 
could not be unmindful of its high constitutional obligation to guarantee 
to every State in this Union a republican form of government, an obliga- 
tion which every State has a direct and immediate interest in having 
observed towards every other State. . . . This obligation the na- 
tional Government is now attempting to discharge. I have been ap- 
pointed, in the absence of the regular and established State authorities, 
as Military Governor for the time being, to preserve the public property 
of the State, to give the protection of law actively enforced to her citizens, 
and, as speedily as may be, to restore her government to the same con- 
dition as before the existing rebellion. 

The " regular and established State authorities," to whom 
Governor Johnson refers, were, of course, none other than 
those officials who administered affairs in Tennessee before 
the 6th of May. Of these some had actually abandoned their 
offices, while others had subordinated their functions to a 
power hostile to the constitution of the State. He proceeded : 

These offices must be filled temporarily, until the State shall be re- 
stored so far to its accustomed quiet, that the people can peaceably as- 
semble at the ballot-box and select agents of their own choice. . . . 

I shall, therefore, as early as practicable, designate for various posi- 
tions under the State and county governments, from among my fellow- 
citizens, persons of probity and intelligence, and bearing true allegiance 
to the Constitution and Government of the United States, who will exe- 
cute the functions of their respective offices until their places can be 



TENNESSEE 17 

filled by the action of the people. Their authority, when their appoint- 
ment shall have been made, will be accordingly respected and observed. 
. . . Those who through the dark and weary night of rebellion 
have maintained their allegiance to the Federal Government will be hon- 
ored. The erring and misguided will be welcomed on their return. And 
while it may become necessary, in vindicating the violated majesty of 
the law, and in reasserting its imperial sway, to punish intelligent and 
conscious treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vindictive 
policy will be adopted.^ 

To all who in private and unofficial capacity had assumed 
an attitude of hostility to the Government amnesty was offered 
for all past acts and declarations upon condition of yielding 
obedience to the supremacy of the laws. This the Governor 
advised them to do. Though the " Appeal," brief, clear and 
characterized by the best temper, is a state paper of decided 
merit, there were many classes still residing at the capital 
upon whom it made little impression. The mayor and the 
city council were ordered to take the oath of allegiance to the 
United States, and on their refusal were imprisoned. Of the 
harshness of this measure it need only be observed that the 
essence of government is to govern, and had the new execu- 
tive failed on this occasion to assert authority his administra- 
tion would have been wrecked at the outset. For printing 
seditious matter the press was placed under restraint, and 
within a few months it was found necessary to punish with 
unusual severity, even ministers of the gospel. Clergymen, 
with a few exceptions, were not only hostile to the Union but 
actually encouraged treason from their pulpits. These 
offenders Governor Johnson summoned to take the oath of 
allegiance or to depart from the State. They appeared be- 
fore him, as commanded to, refused compliance, but asked 
time for deliberation; this being granted, to the full extent 
desired, and still persisting in their refusal they were placed 
in confinement. That they were not proceeded against with 

^Life and Speeches of Andrew Johnson, pp. 451-456. Boston: Little, 
Brown & Co. 1866. 



i8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

undue haste appears from an entry in a diary kept by one of 
Governor Johnson's biographers which fixes the date as 
June 28.^ Three months had fully elapsed since the arrival 
of Mr. Johnson before the ministers were punished for their 
seditious utterances. To prevent interference with his execu- 
tive functions he sometimes imprisoned judges. Other 
measures no less arbitrary have been the subject of much 
criticism. He declared that whenever a loyal citizen was 
maltreated five or more sympathizers with the Rebellion 
should be arrested and dealt with as the nature of the case 
appeared to require. When the property of Union men was 
destroyed remuneration should be made them from the prop- 
erty of the disloyal. The President seems to have approved 
of these reprisals. Nothing more clearly shows the demoral- 
ized condition of society in Tennessee than the necessity of 
adopting measures similar to those employed eight centuries 
before by the Danish and Norman conquerors of England 
to protect their followers from private assassination by the 
natives. With the natural leaders of the people, including 
bankers, physicians and clergymen, encouraging treason, men 
of inferior intelligence and station could not be expected to 
remain peaceful and contented citizens, and as preachers 
of sedition seldom lack numerous and sympathetic audiences 
the spirit of lawlessness increased. The Governor himself 
was threatened with assassination in the public streets and in 
public meetings, but he set such menaces at defiance and on at 
least one occasion addressed an assembly with his pistol on 
a desk before him. 

But the repression of the disloyal and the restoration of 
order by no means included the whole of his duties. Func- 
tions not less important remain to be noticed. To the duties 
of governor and general he added those of quartermaster 

*Life, Speeches, and Services of Andrew Johnson, pp. 101-104. Phila- 
delphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 



TENNESSEE i^ 

and judge. Though thousands of loyal people flocked to 
him for arms and supplies, he proved equal to every demand, 
and from their number raised an army that did gallant serv- 
ice in the field. He fed, clothed and sheltered the poor 
without regard to the army in which their natural protectors 
were serving. Thus redressing grievances, relieving want 
and reinstating courts he worked with an intelligent and 
tireless energy, and when the timid prudence of General Buell 
would have allowed Nashville to fall into the hands of the 
enemy " the courage of Governor Johnson," said a panegyrist, 
*' stood a bulwark for its defence." ^ He had been scarcely 
three months in office when President Lincoln described him 
as "a true and valuable man, indispensable to us in Tennes- 
see." His zeal, his intense fidelity to the Union, his tre- 
mendous energy and undoubted courage peculiarly fitted him 
to rule in turbulent times. At the outset the only agencies 
left for the protection of life, liberty and property were force 
and arbitrary will; these he did not hesitate to employ. 

The foregoing account does not notice his activity in 
another field. His ultimate object, the establishment of civil 
authority throughout Tennessee, was kept constantly in view. 
To prepare for this event he addressed in May, 1862, large 
assemblies at Nashville and Murfreesboro, and in June at 
Columbia and Shelby ville.^ This work, however, was brought 
suddenly to an end later in the summer by General Bragg's 
raid into Kentucky. 

From what has been related it appears, and the opinion 
will grow stronger with the progress of this narrative, that in 
appointing a military governor of Tennessee President Lin- 
coln intended no more than to revive an office already known 

^ Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Andrew Johnson, 
pp. 76-80; Memoir by Frank Moore, pp. xxvi-xxvii in Life and Speeches 
of Andrew Johnson. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 

^Life of Andrew Johnson, pp. 98-101; Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson 
& Brothers. 



20 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

to the people of the United States; and though Mr. Johnson 
was expected ultimately to reinaugurate a loyal government 
throughout the State, his office was regarded primarily as 
an inexpensive means of holding territory wrested from, and 
assisting in military operations against, an enemy. Indeed, 
it is only in this view that his administration of the office can 
be regarded as a success, and that it was so considered in the 
North his nomination on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln is 
undoubted proof. 

Besides several colored regiments, the records for 1863 
show that 25,000 Tennesseeans were then serving in the 
Union army, and every succeeding month increased their 
number.^ That the political advantage to be gained by re- 
storing a loyal government was not the only or even the 
principal purpose of the President may be fairly inferred from 
the following letter: 

I am told you have at least thought of raising a negro military force. 
In my opinion the country now needs no specific thing so much as some 
man of your ability and position to go to this work. When I speak of 
your position, I mean that of an eminent citizen of a slave state and him- 
self a slaveholder. The colored population is the great available and yet 
unavailed of force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of 50,000 
armed and drilled black soldiers upon the banks of the Mississippi would 
end the rebellion at once ; and who doubts that we can present that sight 
if we but take hold in earnest? If you have been thinking of it, please 
do not dismiss the thought.* 

Besides supporting the view of the military governors 
taken above, this letter also makes it evident that the pressure 
of events had already convinced Mr. Lincoln that to save the 
Union it was necessary to possess the untrammeled use of 
every national resource. 

As early as June 8, 1862, the State was included in the 
department of General Halleck, who ten days later was re- 

'Ann. Cycl.,1863, p. 828. 

' Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 318. 



TENNESSEE 21 

quested by Mr. Lincoln to report any information of value 
relative thereto. The thought of a movement into East 
Tennessee was in the mind of the President again on June 30, 
when he informed the commander that he regarded the pos- 
session of the railroad near Cleveland fully as important as 
the taking of Richmond. Halleck, concurring in this opinion, 
telegraphed Buell that " the capture of East Tennessee should 
be the main object of the campaign," the department com- 
mander believing its occupation would put an end to guerrilla 
warfare both in that region and Kentucky. 

The inactivity of General Rosecrans for six months after 
the battle of Murfreesboro left in the interior of the State a 
strong Confederate force whose presence discouraged all but 
the most pronounced loyalists; these, by means of meetings 
and speeches, kept a latent Union feeling alive. A conven- 
tion, called by Brownlow, Maynard and others, was held at 
Nashville, July i, 1863. Delegates were in attendance from 
forty counties; they took an oath of allegiance to the United 
States, and in a set of resolutions pronounced the various 
secession laws and ordinances void. Deeming it vitally im- 
portant to choose a legislature, they invited Governor Johnson 
to issue writs of election as soon as expedient; with this 
request, however, he did not then think it prudent to 
comply. 

Other eyes were observing with interest the progress of 
events within the State. General Hurlbut, writing from 
Memphis, August 11, 1863, relative to the political situation 
in Arkansas, said he was satisfied that Tennessee was " ready, 
by overwhelming majorities, to repeal the act of secession, 
establish a fair system of gradual emancipation, and tender 
herself back to the Union. I have discouraged [he said] any 
action on this subject here until East Tennessee is delivered. 
When that is done, so that her powerful voice may be heard, 
let Governor Johnson call an election for members of the 



22 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Legislature, and that Legislature call a Convention, and in 
sixty days the work will be done." ^ 

This desirable event was not long delayed, for by brilliant 
though bloodless victories both Knoxville and Chattanooga 
early in the following month were in possession of Federal 
armies. Then President Lincoln wrote his letter of Septem- 
ber II, which, because of its great importance, deserves to be 
reproduced in full : 

All Tennessee is now clear of armed insurrectionists. You need not to 
be reminded that it is the nick of time for reinaugurating a loyal State 
government. Not a moment should be lost. You and the cooperating 
friends there can better judge of the ways and means than can be judged 
by any here. I only offer a few suggestions. The reinauguration must 
not be such as to give control of the State and its representation in Con- 
gress to the enemies of the Union, driving its friends there into political 
exile. The whole struggle for Tennessee will have been profitless to 
both State and nation if it so ends that Governor Johnson is put down 
and Governor Harris is put up. It must not be so. You must have it 
otherwise. Let the reconstruction be the work of such men only as can 
be trusted for the Union. Exclude all others, and trust that your govern- 
ment so organized will be recognized here as being the one of republican 
form to be guaranteed to the State, and to be protected against invasion 
and domestic violence. It is something on the question of time to re- 
member that it cannot be known who is next to occupy the position I now 
hold, nor what he will do. I see that you have declared in favor of 
emancipation in Tennessee, for which may God bless you. Get eman- 
cipation into your new State Government — Constitution — and there will 
be no such word as fail for your case. The raising of colored troops, I 
think, will greatly help every way. ^ 

The reference in this communication to emancipation is 
explained by the fact that, in deference to the wishes of 
Andrew Johnson and other Tennessee loyalists, the President 
in his proclamation of January i, 1863, had not mentioned 
that State. 3 

Believing that his commission as military governor did not 

* Abraham Lincoln, A History by Nicolay & Hay, Vol. VIII. p. 440. 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 405. 

' History of Abraham Lincoln, by Isaac N. Arnold, p. 303. 



TENNESSEE 23 

confer upon him powers adequate to every emergency that 
might arise in the important work of restoring a loyal gov- 
ernment Mr. Johnson, to supply this deficiency, prepared a 
letter which he submitted for the approval of President Lin- 
coln, who amended or modified it to read as follows : 

In addition to the matters contained in the orders and instructions 
given you by the Secretary of War, you are hereby authorized to ex- 
ercise such powers as may be necessary and proper to enable the loyal 
people of Tennessee to present such a republican form of State govern- 
ment as virill entitle the State to the guaranty of the United States there- 
for, and to be protected under such State government by the United States 
against invasion and domestic violence, all according to the fourth sec- 
tion of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States/ 

This supplemental authority is dated September 19, and the 
private letter enclosing it informs Governor Johnson why his 
draft was altered. 

It was about this time, while the President was thus urging 
Governor Johnson, that General Rosecrans, surrounded by a 
victorious enemy, inquired of Mr. Lincoln whether it would 
not be well '' to offer a general amnesty to all officers and 
soldiers in the Rebellion ? " In his reply next day the Presi- 
dent, referring first, as was his wont, to the military situ- 
ation, added, " I intend doing something like what you sug- 
gest whenever the case shall appear ripe enough to have it 
accepted in the true understanding rather than as a con- 
fession of weakness and fear." ^ The removal soon after of 
General Rosecrans from his command and the fortunate ap- 
pearance at Chattanooga of those great soldiers of the first 
rank, Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan, made at Look- 
out Mountain and Mission Ridge the occasion which the 
President so much desired, and on December 8. 1863, he 
issued his famous Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruc- 
tion, a copy of which was transmitted with his third annual 

* Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 408, 

* Ibid. p.,4i9- 



24 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

message to Congress. The impression which its candid tone 
produces on the mind of a student to-day was the impression 
made at the time of its appearance upon thoughtful and en- 
lightened men everywhere. Nicolay and Hay in an interest- 
ing chapter of their valuable history describe the satisfaction, 
and even enthusiasm, with which it was received by the ad- 
herents of all parties in Congress. This proclamation, around 
which the later controversy raged, was authorized by act of 
Congress approved July 17, 1862, which, among other pro- 
visions, empowered the President " at any time " thereafter 
" to extend to persons who may have participated in the 
existing Rebellion in any State or part thereof, pardon and 
amnesty, with such exceptions and at such time and on such 
conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare." 
The time for the exercise of this discretion Mr. Lincoln be- 
lieved had now arrived. Like every measure conceived in 
his fruitful mind it had been maturely considered and was 
especially fortunate in being introduced by the concluding 
paragraphs of the message. The very note of sincerity itself 
rings in these weighty lines. Perhaps it was the suggestion 
of unuttered arguments that gave a temporary adherence to 
the Executive plan, which, we are told, was put forth because 
" It is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in 
said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, 
and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for 
their respective States." The proclamation informed " all 
persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in 
the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a 
full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with 
restoration of all rights" of property, except as to slaves, and 
in property cases where rights of third parties shall have in- 
tervened, and upon the condition that every such person 
shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and 
maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be regis- 



TENNESSEE 25 

tered for permanent preservation." This oath bound the 
subscriber thenceforth to '* faithfully support, protect, and 
defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union 
of the States thereunder"; to "abide by and faithfully sup- 
port all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion 
with reference to slaves " unless repealed, modified or held 
void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; to 
support " all proclamations of the President made during the 
existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so 
far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Su- 
preme Court." 

The classes excepted from the benefits of the amnesty were 
all persons " who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic 
officers or agents of the so-called Confederate Government; 
all who have left judicial stations under the United States 
to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall have been, military 
or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government 
above the rank of colonel in the army or lieutenant in the 
navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to 
aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the 
Army or Navy of the United States and afterward aided the 
rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating 
colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, other- 
wise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons 
may have been found in the United States service, as soldiers, 
seamen, or in any other capacity." ^ 

The proclamation provided further that whenever, in any 
of the States in rebellion, " a number of persons, not less than 
one tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the 
presidential election " of i860, " each having taken the oath 
aforesaid and not having since violated it, and being a quali- 
fied voter by the election law of the State existing immedi- 
ately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 443. 



26 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

all others, shall reestablish a State government which shall 
be republican, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall 
be recognized as the true government of the State and the 
State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the Constitu- 
tional provision which declares that ' The United States 
shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form 
of Government, and shall protect each of them against in- 
vasion; and, on application of the legislature, or of the execu- 
tive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against do- 
mestic violence.' " 

Any provision adopted by such State relative to its freed 
people " which shall recognize and declare their permanent 
freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be 
consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present 
condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not 
be objected to by the national executive." In constructing a 
loyal government in any State, it was thought not improper 
to suggest that " the name of the State, the boundary, the 
subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as 
before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifi- 
cations made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, 
and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, 
and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the 
new State government." 

To avoid every occasion of misunderstanding it was ex- 
pressly stated that the proclamation " has no reference to 
States wherein loyal State governments have all the while 
been maintained." The President disclaimed any authority 
to admit members to seats in Congress, each House being 
" the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its 
own members." ^ 

In conclusion it was observed that " while the mode pre- 
sented is the best the executive can suggest, with his present 

^ Art. I. sec. 5, Constitution of the U. S. 



TENNESSEE 



27 



impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible 
mode would be acceptable." ^ 

To get an enrollment of those willing to take the oath 
prescribed in the amnesty proclamation the President, about 
the middle of January, 1864, sent an agent to Tennessee, as 
he had already sent one to Louisiana and to Arkansas. About 
the same time Governor Johnson himself was considering 
the subject of reconstruction; and on the 21st, to begin pro- 
ceedings, called a public meeting at Nashville. It was on this 
occasion that he said : " Treason must be made odious, 
traitors must be punished and impoverished; " slavery he 
pronounced dead and declared that reconstruction must leave 
it out of view. The meeting, which was largely attended, 
adopted resolutions recommending a constitutional conven- 
tion and pledged support of only those candidates who favored 
immediate and universal emancipation. The Governor, how- 
ever, was cautious, and, January 26, 1864, issued a call for an 
election, on the first Saturday of March following, for the 
choice of only county officers. 

The ex-Confederate and the loyalist having been placed 
by the amnesty proclamation on an equal footing, some dis- 
satisfaction was aroused among unconditional Union men. 
To retain the confidence of this class and to set at rest the 
hostile feeling thus excited in the State, Governor Johnson 
framed the oath of allegiance more stringently than Mr. Lin- 
coln had done. This variance occasioned discussion and 
delay and brought inquiries and protests to the President, 
who, to prevent confusion, telegraphed, February 20, 1864, 
Warren Jordan, of Nashville, as follows : 

In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson's 
plan ; otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his 
plan.* 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 443-444. 
= Ibid., p. 486. 



28 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

A week later he assured the Hon. E. H. East, Secretary of 
State for Tennessee, that 

There is no conflict between the oath of amnesty in my proclamation 
of eighth December, 1863, and that prescribed by Governor Johnson in 
his proclamation of the twenty-sixth ultimo.^ 

While it is perfectly true that no discrepancy existed be- 
tween the proclamation of the President and that of the 
military governor, the latter required an additional test. This 
the communication to Mr. East does not discuss. 

To avoid, however, any possible mischief from this source 
Mr. Lincoln, March 26, issued a supplemental proclamation 
which explained that the amnesty applied only to " persons 
who being yet at large and free from any arrest, confinement, 
or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said 
oath, with the purpose of restoring peace and establishing 
the national authority." ^ Prisoners excluded from the am- 
nesty offered in the proclamation of December 8, like all other 
offenders, might apply to the executive for clemency and have 
their applications receive due consideration. This oath, it 
was made known, could be taken before any commissioned 
officer of the United States, civil, military or naval, or before 
any officer authorized to administer oaths, in a State or 
Territory not in insurrection. Such officers were empowered 
to give certificates thereon to persons by whom the oath was 
taken and subscribed. The original records, after trans- 
mission to the Department of State, were to be there deposited 
and to remain in the Government archives. The Secretary of 
State was required to keep a register of such oaths and upon 
application to issue certificates in proper cases in the custom- 
ary form. 

Meanwhile an election, the returns of which are extremely 
meagre, had been held on March 5 for the choice of county 

^ Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 487. 
" Ibid., pp. 504-505. 



TENNESSEE 29 

officers. Though the event was not without influence in 
confirming the faith of Unionists, it was chiefly of value in 
attracting the attention of the disloyal to the chances afforded 
by the proclamation of rehabilitating themselves in their 
former political rights. The result, however, was not so 
favorable as was expected by Governor Johnson or the 
President, and reconstruction in Tennessee once more sank 
to rest. From this condition it was again revived by the 
irrepressible Union men of the State. The East Tennessee 
convention of 1861, by appointing a permanent committee, 
had kept its organization alive. In April or May, 1864, this 
body called a convention at Knoxville to discuss reconstruc- 
tion. Of this gathering one element favored the Crittenden 
Resolutions; the other, immediate emancipation. Probably it 
was this antagonism that prevented further action. The next 
we hear is that Brownlow and others signed a call for a sec- 
ond convention, which was held at Nashville on September 5. 
In this body forty or fifty counties were represented, some 
of them irregularly; that is, by volunteer delegates. This 
assembly recommended the election of a constitutional con- 
vention, the abolition of slavery in the State, and provided for 
taking part in the approaching Presidential election. The 
programme, however, was only partially carried out. On 
September 30, Governor Johnson issued a proclamation for 
holding the election, at which Union voters, so far as the 
unsettled condition of military operations permitted, cast 
their ballots for electors of President and Vice-President. 
It does not appear that in this election any attempt was made 
to choose a governor, a legislature or a constitutional conven- 
tion; but that which met in July, 1863, constituted an execu- 
tive committee, composed of five members from each division 
of the State, which after the Presidential election issued calls 
for a State convention at Nashville, December 19, 1864. 
" The people meet," said the call, '' to take such steps as wis- 



30 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

dom may direct to restore the State of Tennessee to its once 
honored status in the great national Union. 

" If you cannot meet in your counties, come upon your own 
personal responsibility. It is the assembling of Union men 
for the restoration of their own commonwealth to life and a 
career of success." ^ 

Hood's advance upon Nashville preventing a response to 
this address, the convention did not meet till January 9, 1865. 
The enemy had then been dispersed. The State being free 
from further alarms of war, the convention met and pro- 
posed important alterations in the State constitution. 

The first article provided : " That slavery and involuntary 
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted, are hereby forever abolished 
and prohibited throughout the State "; also that " The legis- 
lature shall make no law recognizing the right of property in 
man." The old constitution of Tennessee prohibited the as- 
sembly from passing laws to emancipate slaves without the 
consent of the owner; that prohibition was now removed. 
" The declaration of independence and ordinance dissolving 
the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the 
United States of America," passed by the Legislature, May 6, 
1 86 1, was abrogated and declared " an act of treason and 
usurpation, unconstitutional, null and void." All laws, ordi- 
nances, and resolutions of the usurped State government 
passed on and after the 6th day of May, 1861, providing for 
the issuance of State bonds; also all notes of the Bank of 
Tennessee or any of its branches issued on or after May 6, 
1 86 1, and all debts created in the name of the State by 
said authority were declared unconstitutional, null and void. 
Future legislatures were restrained from the redemption of 
said bonds. It was further provided that " The qualification 
^ Misc. Doc. No. 55, p. 5, H. of R., i Sess. 39th Cong. 



TENNESSEE 3t 

of voters and the limitation of the elective franchise may be 
determined by the general assembly, which shall first assemble 
under the amended constitution." 

The convention completed its labors on January 26, 1865. 
The amendatory articles were submitted, February 22, to the 
people, and ratified by a vote of 21,104 to 40- The schedule 
provided in the event of ratification that the loyal people of 
the State should, on the 4th of March next thereafter, pro- 
ceed by general ticket to elect a governor and members to the 
general assembly to meet in the capitol at Nashville on the 
first Monday of April, 1865. 

A proclamation of Governor Johnson, issued on January 
26, referred to the respectable character of the convention and 
commended its wisdom in submitting for the approval of the 
electors the result of its deliberations. His executive powers 
had been employed to enable the people freely to express their 
judgment on the grave question before them. Provision, he 
declared, would be made to collect the sentiments of loyal 
Tennesseeans in the army. The paper concludes with this 
vigorous exhortation : " Strike down at one blow the insti- 
tution of slavery, remove the disturbing element from your 
midst, and by united action restore the State to its ancient 
moorings again, and you may confidently expect the speedy 
return of peace, happiness, and prosperity." ^ 

About a month later, February 25, he had the happiness to 
congratulate the people of Tennessee on the favorable result 
of the election. By their solemn act at the ballot-box the 
shackles had been stricken from the limbs of more than 
275,000 bondmen. 

The convention which proposed the constitutional amend- 
ments had, in anticipation of its ratification, nominated Wil- 
liam G. [" Parson "] Brownlow for Governor, and recom- 
mended a full legislative ticket. The nominee of the conven- 
^ Misc. Doc. No. 55, p. 9, H. of R., i Sess. 39th Cong. 



32 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

tion was chosen M^rch 4, almost without opposition, receiv- 
ing 23,352 votes against 35 scattering. Having been elected 
on a general ticket the members of both the Senate and House 
of Representatives received the same support as the Governor. 
The Legislature met at Nashville, and in a few days there- 
after Mr. Brownlow was inaugurated. Civil administration 
was thus formally begun. 

That the successive steps to restoration in Tennessee may 
be easily traced, the narrative has not been interrupted to relate 
even matters of undoubted importance. Almost a year before 
the occurrences described, the Republican national convention 
had assembled in the city of Baltimore, and on June 6, 1864, 
unanimously nominated Andrew Johnson for Vice-President 
on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln. Tidings of the fact aroused 
great enthusiasm when it became known in Nashville. In 
addressing an immense meeting called for that occasion Gov- 
ernor Johnson, among other things, said : " While society is 
in this disordered state, and we are seeking security, let us fix 
the foundations of our government on principles of eternal 
justice, which will endure for all time. There are those in 
our midst who are for perpetuating the institution of slavery. 
Let me say to you, Tennesseeans, and men from the Northern 
States, that slavery is dead. It was not murdered by me. I 
told you long ago what the result would be if you endeavored 
to go out of the Union to save slavery; and that the result 
would be bloodshed, rapine, devastated fields, plundered vil- 
lages and cities; and therefore I urged you to remain in the 
Union. In trying to save slavery you killed it, and lost your 
own freedom." * 

In his letter to Hon. William Dennison, accepting the nom- 
ination, he wrote: 

The authority of the Government is supreme, and will admit of no 
rivalry. No institution can rise above it whether it be slavery or any 
*Life of Andrew Johnson, pp. 159-160. 



TENNESSEE 33 

organized power. In our happy form of government all must be subordi- 
nate to the will of the people, when reflected through the Constitution 
and the laws made pursuant thereto — State or Federal. This great prin- 
ciple lies at the foundation of every government, and cannot be disre- 
garded without the destruction of the government itself. 

In accepting the nomination I might here close, but I cannot forego 
the opportunity of saying to my old friends of the Democratic party 
proper, with whom I have so long and pleasantly been associated, that 
the hour has now come when that great party can justly vindicate its de- 
votion to true democratic policy and measures of expediency. The war 
is a war of great principles. It involves the supremacy and life of the 
Government itself. If the rebellion triumphs, free government — North 
and South — fails. If, on the other hand, the Government is successful, 
as I do not doubt, its destiny is fixed, its basis permanent and enduring, 
and its career of honor and glory just begun. In a great contest like 
this, for the existence of free government, the path of duty is patriotism 
and principle. Minor considerations and questions of administrative 
policy should give way to the higher duty of first preserving the Govern- 
ment, and then there will be time enough to wrangle over the men and 
measures pertaining to its administration.' 

For reasons at which Mr. Lincoln hinted in his letter of 
March 26, 1863, few men in Congress exerted in the begin- 
ning of the war so decided an influence upon public opinion 
in the North as did Mr. Johnson. His conduct as military 
governor in no way diminished this popularity. His courage 
in that trying position no less than his devotion to the interests 
of the Union won him ardent admirers in every loyal State. 

Vice-President Hamlin appears to have been the victim of 
an intrigue which represented him as being no material source 
of strength to the government and as scarcely loyal to the ad- 
ministration. This injurious suspicion, which seems to have 
had no substantial basis in truth, happened to coincide with 
a growing conviction that the Republican party should 
strengthen itself by placing on the ticket with Lincoln some 
prominent leader of the opposition. In this connection the 
names of General Butler, John A. Dix, Daniel S. Dickinson 

*Life of Andrew Johnson, pp. 160-161. New York: D. Appleton & 
Co., 1866. 



34 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and Andrew Johnson were mentioned. The last named was 
charged in his administration of the office of mihtary gov- 
ernor with harshness and even with oppression. Investiga- 
tion proved these rumors to be without foundation, and 
Mr. Lincoln was not displeased to find them groundless. 
It does not appear that he was especially favorable to John- 
son, but he regarded him as indispensable to the Union cause 
in Tennessee; Johnson was a slave-holder, was somewhat 
more outspoken than Butler or Dix, and a more conspicuous 
representative of the large class known as War Democrats; 
above all he was an able exponent of Southern Union senti- 
ment and he came from the very heart of the Confederacy. 
Perhaps no single element of strength made him more accept- 
able to the majority of the convention than this last consid- 
eration. Even these qualifications might not have singled 
him out for the distinction conferred were it not for the en- 
thusiasm created by a remarkable speech of Horace Maynard, 
which mentioned Mr. Johnson as a man who " stood in the 
furnace of treason." His administration as military gov- 
ernor had been distinguished for vigor and ability, and it does 
not appear that the radical Republicans then regarded his 
State without the Union. Some of his measures were un- 
doubtedly severe, but the peculiar situation in Tennessee re- 
quired the employment of methods not adapted to times of 
peace. Mr. Lincoln could not, of course, show his hand in 
the Baltimore convention. In fact he repeatedly declined to 
interfere.^ 

On October 15, 1864, the ten electors on the McClellan 
ticket presented through Mr. John Lellyett, one of their num- 
ber, a protest to the President against the proclamation pub- 
lished by Governor Johnson relative to the pending election. 

^McClure's Lincoln and Men of War Times, pp. 106-108; Blaine's 
Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II. p. 7; Hamlin's Life and Times of 
Hannibal Hamlin, pp. 449-489 and 591-615. 



TENNESSEE 35 

His paper, they asserted, contained provisions for holding elec- 
tions which differed materially from the mode prescribed by 
the laws of Tennessee. The proclamation, it was alleged, 
would admit persons to vote who were not entitled by the 
State constitution to participate in the election; by another pro- 
vision which authorized the opening of but one polling-place 
in each county, many legal voters would be unable to exercise 
the franchise. The unusual and impracticable test oath pro- 
posed, was stated as a further grievance, and they complained 
generally of military interference with the freedom of elec- 
tions. To their representations Mr. Lincoln replied orally 
that General McClellan and his friends could manage their 
side of the contest in their own way. He could manage his 
side of it in his way.^ In a written reply of the 22d, how- 
ever, the President said that he perceived no military reason 
for interfering in the matter, and on the same occasion re- 
minded the protestants that the conducting of a Presidential 
election in Tennessee under the old code had become an impos- 
sibility.^ 

In 'their reply to the written communication of the Presi- 
dent, they asserted that an orderly meeting of General Mc- 
Clellan's friends had been broken up by Union soldiers, and 
a reign of terror inaugurated in Nashville. These acts hav- 
ing been countenanced by Governor Johnson, they announced 
the withdrawal of the McClellan electoral ticket in Tennes- 
see.^ 

In these circumstances the Union electors were, of course, 
chosen; but their votes, though offered, were not counted by 
Congress in the joint convention of February 8, 1865, for 
the reason that Tennessee was on November 8 preceding in 
such a state that no free election was held. * 

^ McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 438-439. 

' Ibid., p. 425. 

'Ibid., p. 441. 

*For a discussion of this subject see Chapter IX. 



II 

LOUISIANA 

THE first movement toward reconstruction in Louisiana, 
as in the case of Tennessee, was bound up with the 
war powers of the President, and, no doubt, was made 
with some expectation of aiding his military plans. The 
thought of restoring a loyal government there proceeded quite 
naturally from the peculiar situation in the State. Though 
not so nearly unanimous for secession as South Carolina, her 
people acted with energy and promptness when they received 
tidings of " this last insult and outrage," as the election of 
Mr. Lincoln was sensationally styled.^ Three days were 
deemed sufficient for deliberation, and the convention, January 
25, 1 86 1, passed an ordinance of secession. Two weeks be- 
fore this assembly met at Baton Rouge, the arsenal and the 
forts, a public building and a revenue cutter had been seized 
by State troops from New Orleans. In the mint and the cus- 
tom house of that city more than half a million dollars was 
secured for the Confederate States, and in accepting these 
funds the Montgomery Congress expressed its " high sense 
of the patriotic liberality " of Louisiana. ^ This act of gener- 
osity, however, loses much of its merit when it is remembered 
that both the coin and bullion in the mint, as well as the 
customs, belonged to the Federal government. Besides, there 
was then no scarcity of money in the State, for Northern 
enterprise had found for her cotton and her sugar profit- 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 427. 
•McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 4n. 

36 



LOUISIANA 37 

able markets both at home and abroad. It was benefits of 
this sort, enjoyed in the Union, that enabled Governor Moore 
in January, 1861, to report to his Legislature an overflowing 
treasury.^ This undoubted prosperity served only to aggra- 
vate the war fever. Enthusiasm in New Orleans was only 
less ardent and general than in Charleston. Business was al- 
most suspended, and by the first of June no less than 16,000 
residents of Louisiana were serving in the Confederate army.^ 

President Lincoln's proclamation of April 19 preceding 
had inaugurated a blockade of every port within the State. 
The early days of July witnessed the disappearance of Gov- 
ernor Moore's boasted surplus, and during the summer New 
Orleans became bankrupt;^ her foreign commerce was de- 
stroyed by the blockade, her credit had vanished. Though 
enlistments continued without interruption, signs of financial 
distress multiplied with the approach of winter. Rebellion, 
it was soon discovered, was not attended with unmixed bless- 
ings; bad government had produced its usual consequences, 
and when Governor Taylor, late in the summer of 1862, un- 
dertook to raise an army for the defence of his State he was 
surprised at the universal apathy; neglect and disaster had 
brought disunionists to a condition little short of hostility 
to the Richmond government.* 

Union men in southern Louisiana had not been unobserv- 
ant of these signs; permanent residents of this portion of the 
State had, for the most part, maintained their loyalty to the 
General Government. Indeed, a decided majority of them 
in the election of i860 had voted for Bell and Douglas, and 
though here, as elsewhere in the South, ardent secessionists 
were found, the proceedings in the convention took the Union 

^ McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 25 ; Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 428. 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 432. 

» Ibid. 

* Taylor's Destruction and Reconstruction, pp. 102-103. 



38 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

men by surprise. ^ In the interval they had refrained from 
violence, but had not become reconciled to oppression. 

The importance of New Orleans to their cause had not 
been overlooked by Confederate authorities, and that city was 
held firmly in their grasp until the fleet of Captain Farragut, 
toward the close of April, 1862, steamed up in hostile array 
before its defences. The occupation by General Butler's 
army of this strategic position ended in southern Louisiana 
the activity of the more extreme secessionists, and though 
some restlessness at the presence of Federal forces was pre- 
tended by even Union men, they had not until the surrender 
made any serious effort to help themselves. Under protec- 
tion of the army, however, they commenced immediately to 
form Union associations for the purpose of developing the 
loyal sentiment in this part of the State. Resolutions recom- 
mending an election were passed by these organizations; 
newspapers discussed the question, and in various ways it 
was forced upon the attention of the President.^ The more 
prudent and intelligent among them began under encourage- 
ment of Federal troops to consider measures for relief; the 
less practical commenced writing complaints to friends in the 
North. 

In a private letter of July 26, 1862, to Hon. Reverdy 
Johnson, then in New Orleans investigating General Butler's 
relations with foreign consuls, Mr. Lincoln, noticing a refer- 
ence to the restlessness of the people under the rule of Gen- 
eral Phelps, asks the Maryland Senator to pardon him for 
believing the complaint " a false pretense." A way to avert 
the inconveniences arising from military occupation was for 
the people of Louisiana " simply to take their place in the 
Union upon the old terms." ^ Writing two days later to 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. i. 
' Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 589. 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL, pp. 214-215 ; Ann. Cycl., 
1862, p. 650. 



LOUISIANA 39 

Cuthbert Bullett, a Southern gentleman who appears to have 
enjoyed his personal esteem and confidence, the President, 
after mentioning difficulties in the way of establishing civil 
authority in the State, suggested a method of avoiding them : 
" The people of Louisiana who wish protection to person and 
property," he wrote, " have but to reach forth their hands and 
take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national 
authority, and set up a State government conforming thereto 
under the Constitution. They know how to do it, and can 
have the protection of the army while doing it. The army will 
be withdrawn so soon as such State government can dispense 
with its presence; and the people of the State can then, upon 
the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their own 
liking." ^ If, however, Union men exerted themselves no 
further than criticism of the Federal Government, it was 
more than intimated that there were to be expected greater 
injuries than military necessity had yet inflicted. 

The pressure of events appears even then to have been 
forcing the President in the direction of emancipation. To 
August Belmont, of New York, who enclosed the complaints 
of a New Orleans correspondent, Mr. Lincoln, July 31, 1862, 
repeated in substance what had already been written to Mr. 
Bullett, and added : " Those enemies must understand that 
they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the 
government, and if they fail still come back into the Union 
unhurt. If they expect in any contingency to ever have the 
Union as it was, I join with the writer [Mr, Belmont's cor- 
respondent] in saying, * Now is the time.' " ^ 

The appointment in August, 1862, of General George F. 
Shepley as military governor may be regarded as the first 
act in the restoration of a loyal government for Louisiana. 
His selection, though probably intended as a private com- 
mendation of the judgment of General Butler, who had 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL, p. 216. 
' Ibid., pp. 217-218. 



40 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

already designated him as Mayor of New Orleans, was never 
considered by that officer adequate atonement for the public 
censure implied in his removal, December, 1862, from com- 
mand of the Department of the Gulf. 

Upon the Federal occupation of New Orleans and adjacent 
territory all functions of the disloyal government therein im- 
mediately ceased. As controversies were constantly arising 
the establishment of courts had become a necessity. At first 
these questions were for the most part adjudicated by General 
Butler himself, but the pressure of military and other affairs 
compelled him soon to refer their settlement to civilians or to 
army officers especially chosen for the purpose. This uncer- 
tain system of justice, though immeasurably better than none, 
led to the institution of courts each of which was known by 
the name of the officer holding it. Accused persons were 
brought to trial, and judgments executed by soldiers detailed 
for such duty. No formal record of proceedings in these 
tribunals appears to have been kept, though memoranda of 
judgments rendered were, no doubt, made by an officer who 
came eventually to be designated as clerk. 

For the decision of questions relating exclusively to the 
force under his command General Butler some time in June, 
1862, organized a tribunal known as the Provost Court of 
the Army of the United States, over which Major Joseph M. 
Bell presided. Questions in no way connected with the mili- 
tary, especially matters of police and the punishment of 
crimes, were often submitted for its determination. Ag- 
grieved persons, without reflecting upon the consequence of 
their acts, naturally appealed for redress to the holder of 
power. Thus the authority of this institution silently ex- 
tended, and by the autumn of 1862 it exercised unquestioned 
jurisdiction over all criminal cases arising in the city of New 
Orleans.^ In the absence of courts for adjudicating civil 

* Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 586. 



LOUISIANA 41 

questions they, too, were referred to its consideration. All 
functions of government having been suspended by the cap- 
ture of the city, it became the duty of the Federal commander, 
and his right by the laws of war, to provide, among other 
things, for the administration of justice. 

One of the early acts of General Shepley after his appoint- 
ment as Military Governor was to establish a system of 
courts for the State. Most of the former officials having 
fled after the surrender, he was compelled practically to 
create new tribunals, and this task he greatly simplified by 
reviving those institutions of justice with which the people 
of Louisiana were already familiar. John S. Whittaker was 
accordingly appointed Judge of the Second District Court 
of the parish of Orleans. Besides possessing in civil matters 
the ordinary powers of a local court the old tribunal of that 
name had been a court of probates and successions. The new 
exercised all the powers of the old court. It should be re- 
membered, however, that the latter derived its authority from 
the laws of Louisiana, while the former owed its existence to 
the war powers of the Federal Executive. Its jurisdiction 
extended to civil cases generally where the defendant resided 
in the parish of Orleans or was a non-resident of the State.^ 

Judge Hiestand was appointed to the bench of the Fourth 
District Court of the parish of Orleans. Besides possessing 
the general authority of other district courts in that parish it 
entertained appeals from justices' courts; indeed, these con- 
stituted a large part of its business.^ 

The Sixth District Court of the parish of Orleans, revived 
soon after the capture of the city, is, because of the incumbent 
of that bench, Judge Rufus K. Howell, of greater interest 
than either of the preceding. Under a commission received 
from the State of Louisiana before its attempted secession he 

' Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 586. 
* Ibid. 



42 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

continued to preside over that tribunal while the disunion 
party ruled New Orleans, and performed his functions up 
to the very hour of its surrender to the Federal authorities. 
Having early taken the oath of allegiance to the national 
Government he was permitted to resume his functions.^ Like 
the tribunals mentioned, this court retained and exercised 
all the powers that it possessed as originally constituted. 

These courts, instituted during September and October, 
1862, entered upon the discharge of their duties about the ist 
of November following. They were the only tribunals of 
civil jurisdiction in Louisiana, and that jurisdiction was 
limited, as against defendants resident of the State, to citizens 
of the parish of Orleans. As to inhabitants beyond the limits 
of that parish there was no court in which they could be 
sued. Though the Federal forces held several counties in 
this condition, their tenure fluctuated with the fortunes of 
war. A court was therefore needed whose jurisdiction would 
expand with the advance, and contract with the retreat, of 
the Union armies. The Provost Court was not deemed ade- 
quate, and indeed was never designed to meet such contin- 
gencies. To supply this deficiency a tribunal of very exten- 
sive powers, designated as " a court of record for the State 
of Louisiana," was constituted by Executive order on October 
20, Of this flexible institution Charles A. Peabody, of New 
York, a friend of Secretary Seward, was made provisional 
judge. Besides being empowered to select a prosecuting at- 
torney, a marshal and a clerk, and to make rules for the exer- 
cise of his jurisdiction, he was authorized " to hear, try and 
determine all causes, civil and criminal, including causes in 
law, equity, revenue and admiralty, and particularly all such 
powers and jurisdiction as belong to the District and Circuit 
Courts of the United States, conforming his proceedings, so 
far as possible, to the course of proceedings and practice 

* Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 586. 



LOUISIANA 43 

which has been customary in the Courts of the United States 
and Louisiana — his judgment to be final and conclusive." 
These officers were to be paid out of the contingent fund of 
the War Department, and a copy of the Executive order, 
certified by the Secretary of War, was " held to be a sufficient 
commission " for the Judge. 

This institution, made up as to its personnel in the North, 
was sent from New York with the great expedition of General 
Banks constituted and organized for immediate business to 
Louisiana. Though Judge Peabody, accompanied by Augus- 
tus de B. Hughes, Isaac Edward Clarke and George D. La- 
mont, who had been chosen, respectively, clerk, marshal and 
prosecuting attorney, arrived in New Orleans December 15, 
1862, the opening of court was delayed till the 29th of 
that month by a change of administration in that De- 
partment.* 

In addition to the tribunals described many other courts 
were established about this time; of these the Supreme Court 
of Louisiana is the only one which appears to require especial 
mention. In former times under the State judicial system 
appeals had lain to this institution, and it was accordingly 
held that decisions of the courts now created were subject 
to its revision. In this manner many of their judgments were 
stayed and in suspense, so that the new district courts were of 
little practical benefit. The necessity of a tribunal to remedy 
this deficiency and adjudicate the accumulated cases of former 
years soon became apparent, and in April, 1863, Mr. Peabody 
was appointed Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court; 
associated with him on this bench were judges chosen from 
among the people of Louisiana. 

Nearly a week before his appointment of Judge Peabody, 
Mr. Lincoln, by the hand of Hon. John E. Bouligny, who had 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 587 ; Ibid., pp. 770-776. Scott's Reconstruction 
During the Civil War, pp. 325-326, 328-331, 376. 



44 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

not left his seat in the House of Representatives when South- 
ern delegations withdrew from Congress, sent to General 
Butler, Governor Shepley and other Federal officers having 
authority under the United States in Louisiana a communica- 
tion requesting each of them to assist Mr, Bouligny in his 
effort to secure " peace again upon the old terms under the 
Constitution of the United States." ^ This desirable end 
was to be attained by the election of " members to the Con- 
gress of the United States particularly, and perhaps a legisla- 
ture. State officers, and United States senators friendly to 
their object." Federal officers were instructed to give the 
people a chance to express their wishes at these elections. 
'* Follow forms of law," wrote the President, " as far as con- 
venient, but at all events get the expression of the largest 
number of the people possible. All see how such action will 
connect with and affect the proclamation of September 22. 
Of course the men elected should be gentlemen of character, 
willing to swear support to the Constitution, as of old, and 
known to be above reasonable suspicion of duplicity." ^ 

Loyal leaders, believing that Northern men holding office 
under the General Government in Louisiana would be set up 
as candidates, communicated their fears to the President, who 
sent to Governor Shepley a fortnight before the election a 
letter of which the essential portion is as follows : 

We do not particularly need members of Congress from there to enable 
us to get along with legislation here. What we do want is the conclu- 
sive evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing to be 
members of Congress and to swear support to the Constitution and that 
other respectable citizens there are willing to vote for them and send 
them. To send a parcel of Northern men here as representatives, elected, 
as would be understood (and perhaps really so), at the point of the bay- 
onet, would be disgusting and outrageous; and were I a member of 
Congress here, I would vote against admitting any such man to a seat.* 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 247. 

' Ibid. 

» Ibid., p. 25s. 



LOUISIANA 45 

The note of sincerity is unmistakable throughout, and in 
those Representatives and Senators opposed to Executive 
pohcy the concluding sentences especially must have excited 
strange emotions when they re-read in after years their im- 
passioned attacks in Congress upon that dark spirit who, 
it was gravely alleged, labored with might unquestioned to 
subordinate the Legislative branch of Government. 

The Union associations referred to appointed committees 
who waited upon General Shepley and demanded an election. 
This he hesitated to call until considerable pressure had first 
been exerted. The sentiments of the President concurring 
with the local feeling in New Orleans, Shepley finally yielded, 
and on November 14, 1862, issued a proclamation for an 
election to be held December 3d following. This election, in 
the language of his proclamation, was ordered " for the pur- 
pose of securing to the loyal electors " of both the First 
and Second Congressional Districts " their appropriate and 
lawful representation in the House of Representatives of the 
United States of America, and of enabling them to avail 
themselves of the benefits secured by the proclamation of the 
President of the United States to the people of any State, or 
part of a State, who shall on the first day of January next 
be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United 
States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a 
majority of the qualified voters of such State have partici- 
pated." 1 

In addition to the qualifications prescribed by the laws of 
Louisiana, General Shepley required each elector to take an 
oath of allegiance to the United States, and from among 
the old and respected citizens of the State appointed sheriffs 
and commissioners of election, who performed their duties 
to the entire satisfaction of both candidates and voters. The 
army, for reasons given above, refrained from all man- 

' Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 835. 



46 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ner of interference, and no Federal office-holder was a 
nominee. 

For the first time in many years, it was admitted, every 
qualified elector might freely cast his ballot without fear 
of intimidation or violence. In a total of 2,643 votes Ben- 
jamin F. Flanders was chosen, with little opposition, for the 
First, and Michael Hahn, by a safe majority, for the Second 
Congressional District. A larger vote was actually cast for 
Flanders than had been received by his predecessor, and in 
both districts 7,760 citizens, or about half the usual number, 
appeared at the polls. When it is remembered that four thou- 
sand soldiers who enlisted in Butler's army from this part 
of the State did not participate in the contest, that many 
citizens from this section were serving in the Confederate 
army and that not a few Union men were exiles in the North 
or in Europe the vote in this election was by no means light. 

With credentials signed by Governor Shepley, Messrs. 
Hahn and Flanders appeared in Washington as claimants for 
seats in Congress. After a thorough investigation of the 
election and several ingenious arguments in opposition both 
were admitted, February 17, 1863, though not without con- 
siderable misgiving, as Representatives for the remainder of 
the term, which expired March 3 following. For their ex- 
clusion the opposition relied mainly upon these grounds : 

First. The election, it was asserted, was brought about by 
a threat of interference with slave property if the State was 
not represented in Congress by January i, 1863; this was a 
measure of coercion, and the compliance of citizens in appear- 
ing at the polls was ascribed to selfish motives rather than to 
loyal and patriotic sentiments. 

Second. The existence of any vacancy in a constitutional 
sense was at least doubtful; and even if vacancies existed in 
these districts the authority of a military governor to call an 
election was denied. 



LOUISIANA 



47 



Third. It was objected that Governor Shepley had dis- 
pensed with the registry required by law and had empowered 
commissioners of election to decide upon the qualifications of 
voters; finally, by requiring an oath of allegiance to the 
United States, he had imposed upon electors a test unknown 
to the laws of Louisiana.^ 

While the cases of Messrs. Hahn and Flanders were pend- 
ing the edict of freedom had gone forth, for the President, 
as announced in his preliminary proclamation of September 
22, had declared, January i, 1863, " as a fit and necessary 
war measure," that " all persons held as slaves within said 
designated States and parts of States, are and henceforward 
shall be free." ^ Louisiana was named as one of the States 
in rebellion. From the operation of this measure, however, 
the city of New Orleans and thirteen parishes of the State 
were excepted. 

The admission, February 17, of Hahn and Flanders gave 
new life to the political reorganization of the State.^ But 
with this revival of interest there was discovered among 
the supporters of the Federal Government a difference of 
opinion as to the best course to be pursued in the circum- 
stances. This division of sentiment arose concerning the wis- 
dom of retaining slavery in those parishes not included in the 
President's proclamation. The Union associations, each ap- 
pointing five delegates, organized what they termed a Free 
State General Committee with Thomas J. Durant as presi- 
dent. This body, holding anti-slavery views and assuming 
that rebellion had destroyed the fundamental law, took meas- 
ures to elect delegates to a general convention for the pur- 
pose of framing a new constitution prohibiting slavery. 

^ Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 831-837, 1030-1036. 
^ McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 228-229. 

' Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II. p. 39 ; Nicolay ard Hay's 
Lincoln, Vol. VIII. p. 419. 



48 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Their plan was approved by General Shepley, who, June 12, 
1863, appointed Mr. Durant Attorney-General for the State, 
with power to act as commissioner of registration.^ He was 
ordered on the same day to make an enrollment of all free 
white male citizens of the United States having resided 
six months in the State and one month in the parish, who 
should each take the oath of allegiance and register " as a 
voter freely and voluntarily for the purpose of organizing a 
State government in Louisiana, loyal to the Government of 
the United States." ^ 

The conservative element, though less active, was by no 
means indifferent to these measures, and sent to Washington 
a committee of planters to consult the President. They 
represented in a communication to him that they had " been 
delegated to seek of the General Government a full recogni- 
tion of all the rights of the State as they existed previous to 
the passage of an act of secession, upon the principle of the 
existence of the State constitution unimpaired, and no legal 
act having transpired that could in any way deprive them of 
the advantages conferred by that constitution." They further 
requested him to direct the Military Governor to order an 
election on the first Monday of November following for all 
State and Federal ofBcers.^ To this committee, composed of 
E. E. Malhiot, Bradish Johnson and Thomas Cottman, Mr. 
Lincoln, under date of June 19, 1863, replied " that a respec- 
table portion of the Louisiana people desired to amend their 
State constitution, and contemplated holding a State conven- 
tion for that object. This fact alone, as it seems to me, is a 
sufficient reason why the General Government should not 
give the committal you seek to the existing State constitution. 

' Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 589. 
' N. & H., Vol. VIII. p. 420. 

'Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 590; Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. 
p. 536. 



LOUISIANA 49 

I may add that while I do not perceive how such committal 
could facilitate our military operations in Louisiana, I really 
apprehend it might be so used as to embarrass them." ^ 

It is evident, when we recall the letter of July 26, 1862, to 
Reverdy Johnson, that the President, then only contemplating 
emancipation, had, since his proclamation had gone forth, 
taken much more advanced ground.- The army was still 
his main reliance, and the wisdom of restoring a loyal govern- 
ment as well as the method of that restoration was regarded 
favorably or otherwise as it appeared to facilitate or em- 
barrass military operations. 

Relative to an election in November he said, " There is 
abundant time without any order or proclamation from me 
just now." Though their request was courteously denied, 
he assured the committee that the people of Louisiana should 
not lack an opportunity for a fair election for both Federal 
and State officers by want of anything within his power to 
give them.^ 

The political reorganization of the State was at this point 
interrupted by the absence at Port Hudson of General N, P. 
Banks, then in command of the Department of the Gulf. So 
energetic and successful was the Confederate General Taylor 
that by July 10, when he received intelligence of the fall of 
Port Hudson and the surrender of Vicksburg, his mounted 
scouts had been pushed to within sixteen miles of New Or- 
leans. ■* The surrender in these strongholds of more than 40,- 
000 men was a crushing blow to the Richmond Government ; 
enough troops were disengaged by these victories to over- 
whelm the enemy that menaced New Orleans, and General 
Taylor hurriedly concentrated his army in the valley of the 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 356. 
° Ibid., pp. 214-215. 

' Ibid., p. 356. 

* Taylor's Destruction and Reconstruction, ch. x ; also the general his- 
tory of military operations in the Red River country. 



50 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Red River to observe the movements of the Federal com- 
mander. The Union picket line marked at this time the 
bounds of Governor Shepley's civil jurisdiction; indeed, it 
was not greatly extended until the surrender of General 
E. Kirby Smith late in May, 1865, after the engagement at 
Brazos, Eastern Louisiana, with Alabama and Mississippi, 
had passed a few weeks earlier under Federal control. 

The great numbers withdrawn from production in the 
South combined with a rigorous enforcement of the blockade 
had occasioned a cotton famine in the markets of the world. 
To relieve this condition an outlet was sought for the abun- 
dant crops of the Red River country ; and this fact was prob- 
ably, not without considerable influence, in determining the 
course of the expedition into Texas, which was intended 
to accomplish a very different though scarcely less important 
purpose. 

Though the vigilance of Mr. Adams, United States Minis- 
ter to England, was rewarded by the abandonment in that 
country of any further attempt to build cruisers of the Ala- 
bama type, the Confederate naval agent by no means de- 
spaired of dealing still severer blows to the commerce of 
the North, and, attracted by promises which appear to have 
been authorized by the ruler of France, changed his field of 
activity from Liverpool to Bordeaux, where a ship-builder 
was engaged to construct two formidable rams. With the 
attempts to get these under the Confederate flag this essay 
is not concerned.^ French interests in Mexico appeared at 
that time to require the cultivation of friendly relations with 
what some European States believed was destined to be- 
come a new power among the nations of the world; hence 
Napoleon's encouragement to the Confederate representatives 
abroad. This situation was so seriously regarded by the 

^ Bulloch's Secret Service o£ the Confederate States in Europe, Vol, II. 
chs, i and ii. 



LOUISIANA 51 

Government at Washington that even at considerable sacri- 
fice it was determined to plant the Union flag somewhere in 
Texas. To effect this object General Banks had considered 
and submitted to the War Department plans of his own; 
these, however, appear to have been reluctantly abandoned be- 
cause of repeated instructions from General Halleck, and the 
movement toward Shreveport in the spring and early sum- 
mer of 1864 was begun. From the protracted and enven- 
omed controversy to which it gave rise among the officers on 
both sides its disastrous ending is familiar to all.^ 

While this joint land and naval expedition was yet in 
contemplation Mr. Lincoln found time to inform the Federal 
commander of his opinions respecting the establishment of a 
civil government in Louisiana. In his letter of August 5, 
1863, to General Banks he wrote: 

While I very well know what I would be glad for Louisiana to do, 
it is quite a different thing for me to assume direction of the matter. I 
would be glad for her to make a new constitution recognizing the 
emancipation proclamation, and adopting emancipation in those parts of 
the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And while she is 
at it, I think it would not be objectionable for her to adopt some prac- 
tical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out 
of the old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for 
the new. Education for young blacks should be included in the plan. 
After all, the power or element of " contract " may be sufficient for this 
probationary period; and, by its simplicity and flexibility, may be the 
better. 

As an anti-slavery man, I have a motive to desire emancipation which 
pro-slavery men do not have ; but even they have strong enough reason 
to thus place themselves again under the shield of the Union ; and to 
thus perpetually hedge against the recurrence of the scenes through which 
we are now passing. 

He expressed his approval of the registry which he sup- 
posed Mr. Durant was making with a view to an election 
for a constitutional convention, the work of which, he hoped, 

'N. & H.. Vol. VIII. pp. 285-286; Conduct of the War, Vol. II. pp. 
1-401 (passim). 



52 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

would reach Washington by the meeting of Congress in 
December. Before concluding this letter he added : " For 
my own part, I think I shall not, in any event, retract the 
emancipation proclamation; nor, as executive, ever return 
to slavery any person who is freed by the terms of that proc- 
lamation, or by any of the acts of Congress." ^ 

He again invites attention to the fact that if Louisiana 
should send members to Congress their admission would 
depend upon the respective Houses and not to any extent upon 
the wishes of the Executive. 

Copies of this communication he intended to send to Hahn, 
Flanders and Durant. Three months later, when the gentle- 
man last named informed him that nothing had yet been 
done toward the enrollment, Mr. Lincoln wrote immediately 
to General Banks a letter which at once reveals both the 
extent of his interest in this subject and his extreme disap- 
pointment on learning that his wishes had been but little 
regarded. Flanders, then in Washington, confirmed the ac- 
count of Durant. " This disappoints me bitterly," said the 
letter of November 5, 1863, and though the President did 
not blame either General Banks or the Louisiana leaders for 
this apparent neglect he urged them " to lose no more time." 
"I wish him [General Shepley], ..." continued the 
letter, " without waiting for more territory, to go to work 
and give me a tangible nucleus which the remainder of the 
State may rally around as fast as it can, and which I can 
at once recognize and sustain as the true State government. 
And in that work I wish you and all under your command 
to give them a hearty sympathy and support. 

" The instruction to Governor Shepley bases the move- 
ment (and rightfully, too) upon the loyal element. Time is 
important. There is danger, even now, that the adverse 
element seeks insidiously to preoccupy the ground. If a few 
* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 380. 



LOUISIANA 



53 



professedly loyal men shall draw the disloyal about them, and 
colorably set up a State government, repudiating the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation and reestablishing slavery, I cannot 
recognize or sustain their work. I should fall powerless in 
the attempt. This Government in such an attitude would be 
a house divided against itself. 

" I have said, and say again, that if a new State govern- 
ment, acting in harmony with this government, and con- 
sistently with general freedom, shall think best to adopt a 
reasonable temporary arrangement in relation to the landless 
and homeless freed people, I do not object; but my word is 
out to be for and not against them on any question of their 
permanent freedom. I do not insist upon such temporary ar- 
rangement, but only say such would not be objectionable to 
me."^ 

It should be remembered that Thomas J. Durant, who 
was authorized to make the enrollment as well as to appoint 
" registers " to assist him, was spokesman of the wealthy and 
influential class of planters, or the conservative element whose 
interests opposed any disturbance of existing conditions. He 
appears to have drawn for the President a somewhat gloomy 
picture of the political situation in Louisiana, and finally to 
have protested against the government organized by the ad- 
verse party. The outlook there, however, was not so dis- 
couraging as represented; for as early as October 9 Gov- 
ernor Shepley had renewed his order for the registration, 
modifying the former one so far as to include "all loyal 
citizens." 

Interest was somewhat quickened by the announcement of 
certain conservative leaders of an intention to hold a volun- 
tary election in conformity with the old constitution and laws 
of the State. On October 27, 1863, an address signed by the 
president and vice-president of the Central Executive Com- 
^ Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 436. 



54 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

mittee was published in the papers of New Orleans. This 
appeal, directed to the loyal citizens of Louisiana, begins: 

The want of civil government in our State can, by a proper effort on 
your part, soon be supplied, under laws and a constitution formed and 
adopted by yourselves in a time of profound peace. It is made your duty, 
as well as your right, to meet at the usual places, and cast your votes for 
State and parish officers, members of Congress, and of the State Legis- 
lature. 

The day, as fixed by our laws, is Monday, the 2d day of November 
next, 1863. There is nothing [proceeds the address] to prevent your 
meeting on the day fixed by law, and selecting your agents to carry on 
the affairs of government in our own State. The military will not inter- 
fere with you in the exercise of your civil rights and duties, and we 
think we can assure you that your action in this respect will meet the 
approval of the National Government. 

The failure of those citizens addressed to exercise their 
rights, it was asserted, would subject " the country " to the 
danger of being thrown as " vacated " territory into the 
hands of Congress.^ 

The Free State Committee having been invited to cooper- 
ate, a correspondence ensued between the rival organizations ; 
but, on the ground that this movement was both illegal and 
unjust, the Free State men declined to participate in the elec- 
tion. In their reply the latter assert that " There is no law 
in existence, as stated by you [The Executive Central Com- 
mittee], directing elections to be held on the first Monday 
of November. 

" The constitution of 1852, as amended by the convention 
of 1 86 1, was overthrown and destroyed by the rebellion of the 
people of Louisiana, and the subsequent conquest by the 
arms of the United States does not restore your political 
institutions." ^ 

The reply then proceeds to discuss the injustice of the 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 591. 
*Ibid. 



II 



LOUISIANA 55 

movement, and upon this subject its reasoning is entitled to 
more respect. As to the status of the constitution of 1852, it 
is not easy to comprehend how the secession convention, a 
body universally regarded as revolutionary, could amend, in 
the manner attempted, the fundamental law, seeing that this 
revolution was not yet crowned with success. 

Though no general election was held in response to this 
address, voting took place in two parishes, and certain persons 
were chosen as Representatives in Congress. Before giving 
an account of this election of November 2, 1863, it may be 
proper to notice a petition submitted by the free colored people 
of New Orleans to Governor Shepley praying to be registered 
as voters so that they could " assist in establishing in the new 
Convention a Civil Government " for their " beloved State 
of Louisiana." This address, prepared at a meeting on No- 
vember 5, and not without ability, recites in appropriate lan- 
guage the services rendered by free colored men to both the 
Nation and the State. It is sufficient to observe here that 
their prayer was not granted. The paper itself will be con- 
sidered in discussing the successive steps which led to the 
complete enfranchisement of the race.^ 

The preceding chapter has noticed President Lincoln's 
Amnesty Proclamation of December 8 as well as that part of 
the accompanying message to Congress discussing his plan 
for restoring Union governments in the insurgent States. 

The House had not completed its organization for the 
Thirty-eighth Congress when Thaddeus Stevens, a Represent- 
ative from Pennsylvania, either from curiosity or an anxiety 
to oppose, as he conceived, the policy of the President, in- 
quired what names had been omitted in the call of members. 
At a later stage of its first meeting, December 7, 1863, he 
again referred to this subject by asking to have read the cre- 
dentials of persons claiming to be Representatives " from the 
' Ann. Cycl., 1863, pp. 591-592. 



56 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

so-called State of Louisiana." The acting clerk facetiously 
promised compliance, and read a certificate signed by Mr. 
John Leonard Riddell naming A. P. Field, Thomas Cottman 
and Joshua Baker as persons elected to represent respectively 
the First, Second and Fifth Congressional Districts of the 
State.i 

On a resolution " That A. P. Field is not entitled to a seat 
in this House from the State of Louisiana," reported January 
29, 1864, from the Committee of Elections, his right to ad- 
mission was fully discussed. 

Under the apportionment of 1850 that State sent four, and 
by the census of i860 became entitled to five, Representatives. 
By an act of Congress approved July 14, 1862, each State 
entitled to more than one member in the lower House was to 
be divided into as many districts as it had been allotted 
Representatives. 

But, said Chairman Dawes, as Louisiana had never been 
so divided no person in that State had been chosen according 
to Federal law. The election under which Mr. Field claimed 
a seat occurred in the old First Congressional District, which, 
with a great portion of the city of New Orleans, included two 
adjacent parishes, Placquemines and St. Bernard. On No- 
vember I, General Shepley issued a military order forbidding 
the election, and none was held in New Orleans. In the two 
outlying parishes, however, under the auspices of a citizens' 
committee,' to which returns were made, a few voters ap- 
peared at the polls. In the parish of St. Bernard, the only 
locality in which the House had any proof that electors par- 
ticipated, Mr. Field received one hundred and fifty-six votes, 
and though no evidence in support of his statement had been 
offered, about the same number, he alleged, had been cast 
for him in Placquemines. 

The question was, proceeded Mr. Dawes, whether a gentle- 

"" Globe, Part I., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 5-6. 



LOUISIANA 57 

man with this constituency could be in any sense considered 
as having been elected. There were in his district over lo,- 
ooo qualified voters, and of these the claimant received the 
support of only one hundred and fifty-six; hence nearly ten 
thousand electors expressed no opinion, armed interference 
having prevented 9,844 of them from indicating a preference. 
There was no evidence that this majority acquiesced in what 
was done by one hundred and fifty-six men in a corner of St. 
Bernard parish where an election was permitted. If no other 
objection existed, the State had not been districted as re- 
quired by the Act of July, 1862; this consideration of itself 
appeared to the Committee a reason sufficient for his exclu- 
sion. Further, his certificate was signed by one John Leonard 
Riddell, himself chosen Governor at the same time and in 
the same parishes. His term, according to the laws of Louisi- 
ana, did not commence till January i, 1864, and it was not 
easy to comprehend how he came to regard himself as Execu- 
tive of the State on November 20, 1863, when he signed the 
certificate presented by the claimant. Mr. Riddell, indeed, 
had not then been inaugurated. 

Had not Congress failed to divide the State, the suppres- 
sion of this election would have been without justification 
and have deserved the condemnation of the House. It, how- 
ever, did not conform to the laws of Louisiana, for the votes 
were not cast nor were they counted or canvassed as pre- 
scribed thereby. This, in substance, was the argument of Mr. 
Dawes. 

By other members attention was invited to the fact that 
under the same laws and conditions an election had been 
held in Louisiana a year before, and in consequence two 
Representatives admitted. To this observation Mr. Stevens 
replied that Hahn and Flanders, the members referred to, 
had been seated by the power of the House without, as he 
then supposed, any law or right. Henry Winter Davis alone 



58 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

among all who spoke on the question approved the action 
of the Military Governor on the ground that there was no 
legal right to hold an election, and the attempt of any number 
of persons to do so was an usurpation of sovereign authority 
which was properly prevented. Other Representatives, how- 
ever, strongly condemned this act of Governor Shepley and 
at least one desired the House to express as an amendment 
to the resolution its disapproval of his conduct. Though not 
the question in debate, there could be no mistaking upon 
this point the sentiments of a majority of the members. 

Mr. Field, permitted to address the House, observed that 
it was the fault of the General Government that Union men 
in Louisiana had not been aided by the previous administra- 
tion. If they had been, the blood of Illinois and Massachu- 
setts patriots would not have sprinkled the soil of his State. 

To show that some sort of government existed there he 
caused the clerk to read a list of one hundred and twenty-five 
officers acting in those parishes included within Federal 
military lines, and added that though New Orleans since its 
capture paid annually in taxes, collected through Governor 
Shepley, two and a half million dollars, besides a considerable 
sum in internal revenue, her people were represented neither 
in the local nor the national Government. 

The constitution of Louisiana, he said, required that quali- 
fied electors should be white males who had attained the age 
of twenty-one years, and been residents of the State for 
twelve months immediately preceding the election. The pro- 
vision was so modified by Governor Shepley that persons of 
this description were allowed to vote after a residence of six 
months. Mr. Field did not know whence was derived the 
authority to amend constitutions. 

To secure his cooperation in establishing a loyal govern- 
ment Union men met as early as September 19 in conven- 
tion at New Orleans, and appointed a committee of nine to 



LOUISIANA 59 

present an address to the Military Governor inviting his 
assistance. He decHned, however, after a lengthy interview 
to order an election for Representatives until the State had 
first been divided. In fact, until instructions which he had 
requested, were received from Washington he refused to order 
any election whatever, though he volunteered to forward to 
Mr. Lincoln any communication which they desired to address 
him on that subject. Besides its correspondence with Gov- 
ernor Shepley, the New Orleans convention on September 21 
had sent a letter to General Banks, the Department com- 
mander, to secure if possible his approval of their movement. 

Notice, dated October 20, was given that an election would 
be held, November 2, at the usual places in the parish of St. 
Bernard, and the State and Federal offices to be filled, as 
well as the precise places at which voters could cast their 
ballots, were mentioned. Since the military authorities had 
refused to assist them, and had then issued no order against 
an election, loyal men thought it not improper to express 
their opinions at the polls. As the Free State people con- 
sidered Louisiana out of the Union they declined to partici- 
pate, and though General Banks in obedience to instructions 
from the President had subsequently ordered an election they 
maintained the same attitude. The claimant's party did not 
oppose this order; for if unable to restore their State in the 
manner most acceptable they were willing to cooperate in any 
method likely to accomplish that object. 

Precisely what number of voters would be called a con- 
stituency Mr. Field had not been informed. In the portion of 
his Congressional District included in St. Bernard and 
Placquemines parishes there were only 2,400 electors, and the 
President's plan required only one tenth of the number of 
votes cast in i860. Though the election of November 2 pre- 
ceded the Executive proclamation, that fact should not m.ake 
it void. The electors in New Orleans were not free to ex- 



6o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

press a choice, and even if it had been otherwise the vote in 
the First District must have been greatly diminished since 
i860, for he was assured by two paymasters that 7,000 men 
had been recruited there for the Union army. 

Some members admitted that the national Government had 
not given sufficient protection to Union men in Louisiana, and 
therefore should not now take advantage of that neglect to 
also deprive them of representation in Congress. These be- 
lieved that if Mr. Field had received a majority of the votes 
in his district any informality in the election should be over- 
looked, for the right to representation in Congress grows 
out of the Constitution, and regulations governing such 
elections are matters of mere convenience. The fact that no 
State organization existed there did not create a legal impedi- 
ment, and it was no objection that Louisiana had not been re- 
districted, for the additional member was not imposed as a 
burden but as a right which she was free to exercise or not; 
besides^ the greater representation includes the less. 

Notwithstanding these considerations, and strong, though 
not universal, testimony to the claimant's loyalty, he was 
denied admission, February 9, 1864, by a vote of 85 to 48.^ 
His case, however, was not exactly similar to that of Messrs. 
Hahn and Flanders, as stated by one Representative, for they 
had received, in the circumstances, a comparatively large 
vote. 

To this end came the movement of the planters designed 
primarily to counteract that inaugurated by the Free State 
Committee, which also, as we shall see, was soon at variance 
with the military authorities. Important changes had oc- 
curred in the shifting politics of his State before the House 
had taken final action in the case of Mr. Field; these will 
be briefly related. 

Military necessity had led the President to issue, Decem- 

* Globe, Part I., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 411-415, 543-547- 



LOUISIANA 61 

ber 8, 1863, his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction 
proposing, though not rigidly insisting upon, a plan for rein- 
augurating State governments wherever there existed such a 
loyal nucleus as could effectively assist in overthrowing the 
rebellion. In discussing the affairs of Tennessee that plan 
has been quoted at such length as to require no further men- 
tion in this place.^ 

General Banks on January 8, 1864, announced his intention 
of ordering an election of State officers. He was urged at 
this point by the Free State Committee to allow their election 
to go on, but he refused to yield even under pressure of an 
immense public meeting favorable to their object.^ Without 
his cooperation their plan was doomed to failure, and when 
entreaties did not avail to move him they promptly inveighed 
against his methods and his motives in the columns of The 
National Intelligencer at Washington. In a letter dated New 
Orleans, January 9, 1864, a correspondent writes: 

President Lincoln has started a Missouri case in Louisiana, and has 
made Banks our master; and Banks is another Schofield, only worse 
than he. Our mass meeting last evening was a complete success ; but 
its object will be defeated by Banks, who, under orders direct from the 
President, declares his purpose to order an election for a convention; 
thus playing into the hands of Cottman, Riddle, and Fields, and their 
crew. The Union men — the true Union men — are thunderstruck by the 
course of the President in this matter. 

We were not informed of the President's orders to General Banks 
until the hour of the meeting last night, and the meeting was not in- 
formed at all. General Shepley, who is generally liked, and who has 
done all he could to promote the free State cause, and to organize a free 
State government, will resign, and the election ordered by Banks will be 
purely at military dictation, and will be so regarded. 

The correspondent does not know the secret springs of all 
these acts of the President, but thinks he has probably been 
deceived by base and interested men. " Banks," he believes, 

* See pp. 24-28 ante. 

' Ann. Cycl., 1863, pp. 592-593- 



62 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

"has the unchanged contidence of Mr. Lincohi." The writer 
concludes by asking whether it is not possible to get the Pres- 
ident to countermand his orders to Banks immediately, " and 
let the people manage matters as they have beg-un to do? " ^ 
To prove that no line of policy would be acceptable to the 
Free State Committee ^Ir. Field, in his remarks before the 
House, read in full the communication from which these 
excerpts are taken. 

To comprehend clearly the nature of the controversy which 
so suddenly arose between the Free State General Commit- 
tee and the Federal commander in Louisiana it may be neces- 
sary to explain with some detail the precise attitude of that 
organization relative to the question at issue between the 
adverse parties. In discussing the respective merits of the 
State constitutions of 1S52 and 1S61 the organ of the Free 
State men says : 

The question is altogether immaterial : for. in the conflict of arms 
incident to this rebellion, the predominant ideas of the good people of 
Louisiana have far preceded either constitution ; and to reorganize now 
the State on the slave basis, which botli constitutions and tlie laws passed 
under them recognized, has become an utter impossibility. Free soil and 
free speech have grown up into absolute necessities, directly resulting 
from the war, which has converted into dust and ashes all the constitu- 
tions which Louisiana has ever made, embodying the ideas of property 
in our fellow-man. and all the baneful results of this system of African 
slavery-. The present war is nothing but the conflict of the ideas of 
slavery- and liberty. . . . We cannot have peace until public opinion 
is brought quite up to this point. We cannot reorganize the civil govern- 
ment of our city, and still less that of our State, and get rid of the fear- 
ful incubus of martial law now pressing down our energies by its arbi- 
trary- influence, unless we believe, give utterance to and establish the fun- 
damental principle of our national government : '' all men are created 
free and equal." We know of no better way to effect this than by calling 
a convention as soon as possible, to declare the simple fact that Louisi- 
ana now is and will forever be a free State.' 

* Globe. Part I., i Sess. 3Sth Cong., p. 543. 
*Ann. Cycl., 1S63, p. 590. 



LOUISIANA 63 

The party favoring this method insisted that in August, 
1863, when General Shepley was in Washington, their plan 
in all its parts was adopted in a Cabinet meeting, and that a 
special order issued from the War Department directing the 
Military Governor to carry it into execution. The movement 
for reorganizing the State would thus be placed under control 
of the steadfast opponents of slavery. They further claimed 
that Mr. Lincoln then preferred the calling of a convention 
to an election of State officers under the old constitution. 
His letter of August 5, 1863, to General Banks certainly 
leaves no doubt as to his sentiments at that time, for he 
expressed his approval of the enrollment being taken by Du- 
rant with a view to an election for a constitutional convention, 
the mature work of which, he thought, should reach Wash- 
ington by the meeting of Congress. The impossibility of so 
expediting registration outside of New Orleans as to be ready 
for an election at that early date was explained to the Presi- 
dent by the Free State Committee. 

Mr. B. F. Flanders returning from Washington in October, 
1863, reported the President as saying, in reply to an objec- 
tion that enough territory and population were not under pro- 
tection of the Union army to justify an election, that so 
great was the necessity for immediate action that he would 
recognize and sustain a State government organized by any 
part of the population of which the National forces then 
had control, and that he wished Flanders on his return to 
Louisiana to say so.^ 

The registration under Governor Shepley, though fre- 
quently interrupted, had proceeded, and the Free State Com- 
mittee, to insure the success of their object, conferred with 
him for the purpose of holding, about January 25, 1864, an 
election for delegates to a State convention which, as already 

' Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 591. 



64 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

observed, intended to frame a new constitution abolishing 
slavery everywhere throughout the State. The announce- 
ment, then, on January 8, 1864, by General Banks of his in- 
tention to order an election of State officers under the old 
constitution was regarded by them as a decision for their 
adversaries. Their objections to the proclamation itself will 
be noticed in the proper place. It provided not only for an 
election of State officers on February 22 following, but also 
for the choice of delegates to a convention to be held in 
April for a revision of the constitution. The paramount 
objection of the Free State men was that the election of 
State officers would, under the course of General Banks, 
precede that for delegates to the convention, the point at 
which they desired to begin the work of reestablishing a civil 
government for the State. 

To Thomas Cottman, who accompanied Mr. Field to 
Washington claiming a seat in Congress as Representative 
from the Second Louisiana District, Mr. Lincoln, on Decem- 
ber 15, wrote: 

You were so kind as to say this morning that you desire to return to 
Louisiana, and to be guided by my wishes, to some extent, in the part 
you may take in bringing that State to resume her rightful relation to 
the General Government. 

My wishes are in a general way expressed, as well as I can express 
them, in the proclamation issued on the eighth of the present month, and 
in that part of the annual message which relates to that proclamation. 
It there appears that I deem the sustaining of the Emancipation Procla- 
mation, where it applies, as indispensable ; and I add here that I would 
esteem it fortunate if the people of Louisiana should themselves place 
the remainder of the State upon the same footing.^ 

Though this letter expressed as one of Mr. Lincoln's 
strongest wishes a hope that all Union men in Louisiana 
would " eschew cliquism," he was destined to be disappointed, 
for at this very time letters from General Banks, dated De- 
cember 6 and 16, informed him that Governor Shepley, Mr. 
* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 458-459. 



LOUISIANA 6s 

Durant and others had given him to understand that they 
were charged exclusively with the work of reconstruction in 
Louisiana and hence he had not felt authorized to interfere. 
Other officers had set up claims to jurisdiction conflicting 
and interfering with his own powers of military administra- 
tion. Annoyed that a misunderstanding was delaying work 
which he had been urging for a year, the President, on the 
24th of December, wrote General Banks as follows : 

I have all the while intended you to be master, as well in regard to 
reorganizing a State government for Louisiana, as in regard to the mili- 
tary matters of the department; and hence my letters on reconstruc- 
tion have nearly, if not quite, all been addressed to you. My error has ' 
been that it did not occur to me that Governor Shepley or any one else 
would set up a claim to act independently of you ; and hence I said noth- 
ing expressly upon the point. 

Language has not been guarded at a point where no danger was 
thought of. I now tell you that in every dispute with whomsoever, you 
are master. 

Governor Shepley was appointed to assist the commander of the de- 
partment, and not to thwart him or act independently of him. Instruc- 
tions have been given directly to him, merely to spare you detail labor, 
and not to supersede your authority. This, in its liability to be miscon- 
strued, it now seems was an error in us. But it is past. I now distinctly 
tell you that you are master of all, and that I wish you to take the case 
as you find it, and give us a free State reorganization of Louisiana in the 
shortest possible time. What I say here is to have a reasonable con- 
struction. I do not mean that you are to withdraw from Texas, or 
abandon any other military measure which you may deem important. 
Nor do I mean that you are to throw away available work already done 
for reconstruction ; nor that war is to be made upon Governor Shepley, or 
upon any one else, unless it be found that they will not cooperate with 
you, in which case, and in all cases, you are master while you remain in 
command of the department.* 

This letter making General Banks " master " of the situ- 
ation in Louisiana the President concluded by thanking him 
for his successful and valuable operations in Texas. But 
before receiving this extensive authority and the undoubted 
assurance of Mr. Lincoln's confidence the commander, on 
* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 465-466. 



66 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

December 30, submitted to the President a plan of reconstruc- 
tion based upon the Proclamation and the Message of the 
8th of that month. For evident reasons this communica- 
tion deserves to be reproduced almost entire : 

I would suggest [says General Banks], as the only speedy and certain 
method of accomplishing your object, that an election be ordered, of a 
State government, under the constitution and laws of Louisiana, except 
so much thereof as recognizes and relates to slavery, which should be 
declared by the authority calling the election, and in the order authoriz- 
ing it, inoperative and void. The registration of voters to be made in 
conformity with your Proclamation, and all measures hitherto taken with 
reference to State organization, not inconsistent with the Proclamation, 
may be made available. A convention of the people for the revision of 
the constitution may be ordered as soon as the government is organized, 
and the election of members might take place on the same or a subse- 
quent day with the general election. The people of Louisiana will ac- 
cept such a proposition with favor. They will prefer it to any arrange- 
ment which leaves the subject to them for an affirmative or negative 
vote. Strange as this may appear, it is the fact. Of course a government 
organized upon the basis of immediate and universal freedom, with the 
general consent of the people, followed by the adaptation of commercial 
and industrial interests to this order of things, and supported by the army 
and navy, the influence of the civil officers of the Government, and the 
Administration at Washington, could not fail by any possible chance to 
obtain an absolute and permanent recognition of the principle of freedom 
upon which it would be based. Any other result would be impossible. 
The same influence would secure with the same certainty the selection 
of proper men in the election of officers. 

Let me assure you that this course will be far more acceptable to the 
citizens of Louisiana than the submission of the question of slavery to 
the chances of an election. Their self-respect, their amour propre will 
be appeased if they are not required to vote for or against it. Oflfer 
them a government without slavery and they will gladly accept it as a 
necessity resulting from the war. On all other points, sufficient guaran- 
tees of right results can be secured ; but the great question, that of im- 
mediate emancipation, will be covered ab initio, by a conceded and abso- 
lute prohibition of slavery. 

Upon this plan a government can be established whenever you wish — 
in thirty or sixty days; a government that will be satisfactory to the 
South and the North ; to the South, because it relieves them from any 
action in regard to an institution which cannot be restored, and which 
they cannot condemn; and to the North, because it places the interests 



LOUISIANA 67 

of liberty beyond all possible accident or chance of failure. The result 
is certain." ^ 

Upon receiving this communication the President, who 
cherished no plan of restoration to which exact conformity 
was indispensable, expressed, January 13, 1864, in a letter to 
General Banks his gratitude for the zeal and confidence mani- 
fested by him on the question of reinaugurating a free State 
government in Louisiana. He hoped, because of the authority 
contained in the letter of December 24, that the Department 
Commander had already commenced work. " Whether you 
shall have done so or not," continues the letter, " please, on 
receiving this, proceed with all possible despatch, using your 
own absolute discretion in all matters which may not carry 
you away from the conditions stated in your letters to me, 
nor from those of the message and proclamation of Decem- 
ber 8. Frame orders, and fix times and places for this and 
that, according to your own judgment." ^ 

This letter repeats the idea of subordination to General 
Banks of all officials in his department holding authority 
from the President, and stated that the bearer of the com- 
munication, Collector Dennison, of New Orleans, understood 
the views of the commander and was willing to assist in 
carrying them out. Before Mr. Dennison arrived in New 
Orleans, however, General Banks had already, in his proc- 
lamation of January 11, 1864, fixed a date for the election. 
This action was determined, said the Department Commander, 
upon ample assurance " that more than a tenth of the popula- 
tion desire the earliest possible restoration of Louisiana to the 
Union"; hence he invited "the loyal citizens of the State 
qualified to vote in public affairs ... to assemble in 
the election precincts designated by law, ... on the 
22d of February, 1864, to cast their votes for the election of 

' N. & H., Vol. VIII. pp. 428-430. 
° Ibid., p. 469. 



68 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

State officers herein named, vi::. Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney-General, Su- 
perintendent of Public Instruction and Auditor of Public Ac- 
counts — who shall, when elected, for the time being, and 
until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute 
the civil government of the State, under the constitution and 
laws of Louisiana, except so much of said constitution and 
laws as recognize, regulate or relate to slavery, which being 
inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs, and 
plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing 
within its limits, must be suspended, and they are therefore 
and hereby declared to be inoperative and void. This pro- 
ceeding is not intended to ignore the right of property exist- 
ing prior to the rebellion, nor to preclude the claim for com- 
pensation of loyal citizens for losses sustained by enlistment 
or other authorized acts of Government." ^ 

The qualifications of voters in this election were to be de- 
termined by the oath of allegiance prescribed by the Presi- 
dent's proclamation together with the condition annexed 
to the elective franchise by the constitution of Louisiana. 
Officers elected were to be duly installed on the 4th of 
March. 

So much of the registration effected under direction of 
Governor Shepley and the several Union Associations as 
was not inconsistent with the proclamation and other orders 
of the President was approved. The proclamation further 
announced that arrangements would be made for the early 
election of members of Congress for the State, and, that the 
organic law might be made to conform to the will of the people 
and harmonize with the spirit of the age, an election of dele- 
gates to a convention for the revision of the constitution would 
be held on the first Monday of April following. 

This proclamation declared, among other things, that 

* Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. 592. 



H 



LOUISIANA 69 

The fundamental law of the State is martial law. . . . The Gov- 
ernment is subject to the law of necessity, and must consult the condi- 
tion of things, rather than the preferences of men, and if so be that its 
purposes are just and its measures wise, it has the right to demand that 
questions of personal interest and opinion shall be subordinate to the 
public good. When the national existence is at stake, and the liberties of 
the people in peril, faction is treason. 

The methods herein proposed submit the whole question of government 
directly to the people — first, by the election of executive officers, faithful 
to the Union, to be followed by a loyal representation in both Houses of 
Congress ; and then by a convention which will confirm the action of the 
people, and recognize the principles of freedom in the organic law. This 
is the wish of the President.^ 

On February 13, nine days before the election, General 
Banks issued an order relative to the qualifications of electors. 
It provided, in addition to the declarations on that subject in 
his proclamation, that Union voters expelled from their homes 
by the public enemy might cast their ballots for State ofiticers 
in the precincts where they temporarily resided and that quali- 
fied electors enlisted in the anny or navy could vote in those 
precincts in which they might be found on election day. If 
without the State, then commissioners would be appointed 
to receive their ballots wherever stationed, returns to be 
made to General Shepley.^ 

For governor three candidates were nominated — B. F. 
Flanders, a representative of the Free State Committee; 
Michael Hahn, the choice of those who approved the meas- 
ures of General Banks, and J. Q. A. Fellows, a pro-slavery 
conservative who favored " the Constitution and the Union 
with the preservation of the rights of all inviolate." The 
friends of Hahn would deny to persons of African descent 
the privileges of citizenship, whereas the supporters of 
Flanders generally would extend to them such rights and 
immunities.^ 

* Ann. Cycl., 1863, pp. 592-593- 

* Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 476. 
» Ibid. 



70 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

On Washington's birthday, as announced in the proclama- 
tion of General Banks, an election was held in seventeen 
parishes, Hahn receiving 6,183, Fellows 2,996 and Flanders 
2,232 votes, a total of 11,411, of which 107 were cast by 
Louisiana soldiers stationed at Pensacola, Florida.^ 

Writing February 25 to the President General Banks says : 

The election of the 226. of February was conducted with great spirit 
and propriety. No complaint is heard from any quarter, so far as I 
know, of unfairness or undue influence on the part of the officers of the 
Government. At some of the strictly military posts the entire vote of 
the Louisiana men was for Mr. Flanders, at others for Mr. Hahn, ac- 
cording to the inclination of the voters. Every voter accepted the oath 
prescribed by your proclamation of the 8th of December. . . . The 
ordinary vote of the State has been less than forty thousand. The pro- 
portion given on the 226. of February is nearly equal to the territory 
covered by our arms.^ 

The friends of the Free State General Committee in a pro- 
test pronounced the result of the election " the registration 
of a military edict," and " worthy of no respect from the 
representatives and Executive of the nation." To the ques- 
tion whether this election had in the meaning of the Presi- 
dent reestablished a State government they promptly an- 
swered in the negative, for the commanding general recog- 
nized the Louisiana constitution of 1852 and ordered an elec- 
tion under it in which the votes of the people had nothing to 
do with reestablishing government; his proclamation, by 
recognizing the existence of the old constitution, made the 
reestablishment beforehand for them. The Governor and 
Lieutenant-Governor, together with the other executive offi- 
cers chosen, did not, they argued, constitute a State govern- 
ment; for all the constitutions of Louisiana, including that 
of 1852, described the government as consisting of three de- 
partments : executive, legislative and judicial. 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 476. 

' N. & H., Vol. VIII. pp. 432-433- 



I 



LOUISIANA 71 

Though not avowed, the reason of Banks' failure to order 
an election for members of the Legislature was plain, for 
there was not, they claimed, within the Union lines a suffi- 
cient number of parishes to elect a majority of that body, and 
less than a majority was, by the constitution, not a quorum 
to do business; so that no officer elected could be legally 
paid, for that could be done by only a legal appropriation. The 
same constitution, they said further, provided that Justices 
of the Supreme and District Courts, as well as justices of the 
peace, should be elected by the people. The present incum- 
bents had been simply appointed by General Shepley. Should 
Mr. Hahn under pretence of being civil governor undertake 
to appoint judicial officers, the act would be a mere usurpation. 

Not only, they declared, had no State government been 
established by this election, but still further, the proclama- 
tion of the President had not in the matter of electors been 
complied with; for Article XII. of the constitution of 1852 
says : " No soldier, seaman, or marine in the army or navy 
of the United States . . . shall be entitled to vote at 
any election in this State." Yet, continued the protestants, 
it was a notorious fact that the general commanding per- 
mitted soldiers recruited in Louisiana, and otherwise quali- 
fied, to vote, and that many availed themselves of the privilege. 
Again, they went on to say, the Legislature by act of March 
20, 1856, provided for the appointment in New Orleans of 
a register of voters whose office should be closed three days 
before an election, and no one registered during that period. 
Now prior to the late election, the register having closed his 
office according to law, orders were at once given to two 
other officers, recorders of the city, who had no such powers 
or functions by law, to register voters, which they did night 
and day, and persons so registered were allowed to vote. 

Referring to the declared intention of General Banks to 
order an election of delegates to a constitutional conven- 



72 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

tion, and by a subsequent order fix the basis of representa- 
tion, the number of delegates and the details of the elec- 
tion, they said : " This will put the whole matter under mili- 
tary control, and the experience of the last election shows that 
only such a convention can be had as the overshadowing in- 
fluence of the military authority will permit. Under an elec- 
tion thus ordered, and a constitution thus established, a re- 
publican form of government cannot be formed. It is simply 
a fraud to call it the reestablishment of a State government 
In these circumstances, the only course left to the truly loyal 
citizens of Louisiana is, to protest against the recognition 
of this pretended Government, and to appeal to the calm 
judgment of the nation to procure such action from Congress 
as will forbid military commanders to usurp the powers 
which belong to Congress alone, or to the loyal people of 
Louisiana." ^ 

But neither the protest nor the criticism of Free State 
men availed to arrest the march of events, and in the presence 
of a vast multitude Michael Hahn, who had received a ma- 
jority of all the votes cast, was inaugurated Governor amidst 
great enthusiasm on March 4. To the oath prescribed in 
the amnesty and reconstruction proclamation of December 8, 
1863, given above, was added the following: 

And I do further solemnly swear, that I am qualified according to the 
constitution of the State to hold the office to which I have been elected, 
and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the 
duties incumbent on me as Governor of the State of Louisiana, according 
to the best of my abilities and imderstanding, agreeably to the Consti- 
tution and Laws of the United States, and in support of and according 
to the constitution and laws of this State, so far as they are consistent 
with the necessary military occupation of the State by the troops of the 
United States for the suppression of the rebellion, and the full restora- 
tion of the authority of the United States.* 

' Ann. Cycl., 1863, pp. 593-594- 
* Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 477. 



4 



LOUISIANA 73 

This language clearly indicates the legal theory upon which 
General Banks was proceeding, and citizens understood that 
Mr. Hahn represented a popular power entirely subordinate 
to the armed occupation of the State. 

On March 13, 1864, the President wrote the following 
private letter to Governor Hahn : 

I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first 
free-state governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a conven- 
tion, which, among other things, will probably define the elective fran- 
chise. I barely suggest for your private consideration whether some of 
the colored people may not be let in — as, for instance, the very intelli- 
gent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They 
would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of 
liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not 
to the public, but to you alone.^ 

Speaking of this personal note Mr. Blaine says : " It was 
perhaps the earliest proposition from any authentic source 
to endow the negro with the right of suffrage, and was an 
indirect but most effective answer to those who subsequently 
attempted to use Mr. Lincoln's name in support of policies 
which his intimate friends instinctively knew would be ab- 
horrent to his unerring sense of justice."^ 

At the suggestion of General Banks, the President two days 
later invested Mr. Hahn until further order " with the pow- 
ers exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisi- 
ana." ^ 

From the sentiments of the Free State party it requires 
little insight into human affairs to foretell that in some 
manner they would soon be found in opposition. Their can- 
didate, Mr. B. F. Flanders, who received fewer votes than 
either of his competitors, was a prominent official in the 
Treasury Department, and from this vantage ground, with- 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 496. 
" Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. IL p. 40. 

• Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 498. 



74 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

out, so far as appears, rebuke from Secretary Chase, began to 
stir up in Congress a feeling of hostility to the new govern- 
ment in Louisiana. Precisely why Mr. Lincoln decided to 
take into his own hands the entire subject of reconstruction 
may be collected without difficulty from what has already 
been said; but that this determination was confirmed by his 
knowledge of an alliance between the Free State leaders and 
the " Radicals " in Congress there can be little doubt. 

The Department Commander in a general order gave no- 
tice on March 1 1 that an election would be held on the 28th 
of that month for the choice of delegates to a State convention 
to meet in New Orleans " for the revision and amendment of 
the constitution of Louisiana," ^ Five days later, March 16, 
Governor Hahn, in a proclamation to the sheriffs and other 
officers concerned, authorized the election and commanded 
them to give due notice thereof to the qualified voters of the 
State and to make prompt returns to the Secretary of State in 
New Orleans.^ 

Pursuant to these notices the election was held on the 28th, 
and resulted in the choice of ninety-seven members, two of 
whom were rejected because of irregular returns. The entire 
State was entitled to 150 delegates. The parish of Orleans 
was represented by sixty-three members, leaving to the 
country parishes but thirty-two. Of the vote, which was ex- 
ceedingly light, no return appears to have been published. 
Because of their recent defeat no nominations were made by 
the Radicals, and this fact, together with heavy rains on elec- 
tion day, was assigned by Governor Hahn in a letter to the 
President as an explanation of the meagre vote. The Parish 
of Ascension, which in i860 had a population of 3,940 whites, 
elected her delegates by 61 votes; Placquemines, which by the 
same census had 2,529 white inhabitants, cast 246, while the 

' Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 478. 
•Ibid. 



LOUISIANA 75 

single delegate from Madison was cliosen by only twenty-eight 
electors.^ 

General Banks informed a committee of Congress that all 
that section of the State as far up as Point Coupee voted; some 
men from the Red River cast their ballots at Vidalia. In his 
statement he declared that " The city of New Orleans is really 
the State of Louisiana"; yet at that time it contained less 
than half the population of the State.^ 

The constitutional convention, which assembled April 6, 
1864, was organized on the 7th with E. H. Durell as presi- 
dent, and after a session of more than two and a half months 
adjourned July 25. A proclamation of the Governor ap- 
pointed the 5th of September as the time for taking a vote on 
the work of the convention. The result was 6,836 for the 
adoption, and 1,556 for the rejection of the constitution. 
Besides these there were a number of electors who did not 
vote on either side of the question.^ 

Of the work of the convention General Banks spoke as 
follows : 

In a State which held 331,726 slaves, one half of its entire population 
in i860, more than three fourths of whom had been specially excepted 
from the Proclamation of Emancipation, and were still held de jure in 
bondage, the convention declared by a majority of all the votes to which 
the State would have been entitled if every delegate had been present 
from every district in the State : — 

Instantaneous, universal, uncompensated, unconditional emancipation 
of slaves ! 

It prohibited forever the recognition of property in man ! 

It decreed the education of all the children, without distinction of race 
or color ! 

It directs all men, white or black, to be enrolled as soldiers for the 
public defence ! 

It makes all men equal before the law ! 

It compels, by its regenerating spirit, the ultimate recognition of all 
the rights which national authority can confer upon an oppressed race ! 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1864, pp. 478-479. 
' Ibid. ' Ibid., p. 479- 



76 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

It wisely recognizes for the first time in constitutional history, the in- 
terest of daily labor as an element of power entitled to the protection of 
the State.' 

At the same election, that of September 5, the following 
persons were chosen Representatives in Congress : M. F. 
Bonzano, A. P. Field, W. D. Mann, T. M. Wells and R. W. 
Taliaferro. A Legislature was elected at the same time, the 
members of which were almost entirely in favor of a free 
State, and by this body seven electors of President and Vice- 
President were appointed. On October loth two United 
States Senators were elected — R. King Cutler for the unex- 
pired term ending March 4, 1867, and Charles Smith for the 
vacancy created by the resignation of Judah P. Benjamin, and 
ending March 4, 1865.* 

It is matter of familiar history that the State government 
thus organized was never recognized by Congress. The ques- 
tion was presented to that body December 5, 1864, at the 
opening of the second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, 
when the claimants above named appeared in Washington 
applying for admission to seats, and again in January and 
February, 1865, upon consideration of a joint resolution de- 
claring certain States not entitled to representation in the 
Electoral College. As in the case of Tennessee, however, the 
vote offered by Louisiana was not counted. 

The agency of the President in setting up this civil govern- 
ment, and the successive steps in its accomplishment have been 
related with some degree of minuteness, so that the nature of 
the controversy between the Executive and the Legislative 
branches of the Government may be better understood. 
Whether Mr. Lincoln exceeded his constitutional authority 
will be considered when an account has been presented of the 
result of his efforts to restore civil government in the States 
where Federal authority had been overthrown. 

' Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 479. ^ Ibid. 



i 



Ill 

ARKANSAS 

THE people of northern Arkansas were strongly at- 
tached to the Union, and until December 20, i860, 
when a commissioner from Alabama addressed its 
Legislature, no secession movement took place within the State. 
Her geographical position classed her with the Western, her 
productions bound up her interests with the Southern, States.^ 
As late as January 5, 1861, resolutions opposing separate ac- 
tion were adopted almost unanimously by the largest meeting 
ever held at Van Buren. Mr. Lincoln's election was not then 
deemed a sufficient cause to dissolve the Union. Citizens of 
every party favored all honorable efforts for its preservation, 
and demonstrations to the contrary were regarded as the work 
of only an extreme and inconsiderable faction.^ So rapid, 
however, was the succession of events that scarcely two weeks 
had elapsed when she exhibited signs of resting uneasily in 
the Union; for on January 16 a bill submitting to popular 
vote the question of holding a convention passed the Legisla- 
ture.^ At the election of delegates to this assembly 23,626 
votes were cast for the Union, against 17,927 for the secession, 
candidates. Though this convention, which assembled March 
4, was organized by the choice of Union officers, the proposal 
to hold it had been carried by a majority of 1 1,586 in the elec- 
tion of February 18. While secession was strongly urged, a 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 22. 

* Ibid. 

' McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 4. 

77 



yS LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

conditional ordinance was defeated by a vote of 39 to 35.^ 
At Van Buren and Fort Smith salutes of thirty-nine guns 
were fired in honor of the loyal members. The inaugural of 
President Lincoln, received two days ^fter organizing, pro- 
duced a somewhat unfavorable impression. On the 17th an 
ordinance, reported by a self -constituted committee of seven 
secessionists and seven cooperationists, was unanimously 
adopted.^ This provided for an election on the first Monday 
of August, when the qualified voters in the State could cast 
their ballots either for "secession" or "/cooperation." The 
result, though not wholly satisfactory to either party, afforded 
time for deliberation. 

Tidings of the fall of Sumter, together with the President's 
proclamation and a requisition for troops from the Secretary 
of War, interrupted the brief interval of repose following the 
adjournment of the convention. In these circumstances the 
State was compelled to make a choice of sides. Governor 
Rector's reply, April 22, to this requisition shows him to have 
been ardently in favor of disunion; the president of the con- 
vention, concurring in this sentiment, issued a call for that 
body to reassemble May 6, when an ordinance of secession 
was promptly passed with but one dissenting vote. * By a 
resolution the convention authorized the Governor to call out, 
if necessary, 60,000 men, and ordered the issue of $2,000,000 
in bonds. Another ordinance confiscated debts due to persons 
in non-slaveholding States.'* 

The first military movement, after the ordinance of seces- 
sion had been carried, aimed to secure Federal property within 
the State, and their value to the South singled out for seizure 
the arsenals at Fort Smith and Little Rock. The latter city 

* Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 22. 
' Ibid. 

* Ibid., p. 23. 

* Ibid., pp. 23-24. 



ARKANSAS 79 

on February 5 was thrown into a great turmoil of confusion 
and excitement by the unexpected arrival of a body of troops 
from Helena with the avowed purpose of taking the arsenal ; 
more soldiers arrived during that and the succeeding day until 
about 400 had assembled. Though the Governor, in response 
to their inquiry, informed the city council that this force was 
not there by his order, the troops believed they were acting 
under his command; at any rate they came to take the arsenal 
and were not to be diverted from their object. To prevent a 
collision, which must have followed a refusal of the command- 
ing officer to surrender to a body of men disavowed by their 
Governor, the latter was easily persuaded to assume the re- 
sponsibility of the movement and he consented to demand its 
surrender in the name of the State. This demand Captain 
Totten asked until three o'clock the next day to consider; then 
he made known his readiness to evacuate the arsenal, which 
about noon of the following day was delivered to the State 
authorities.^ 

The delegates of Arkansas on May 18 took their seats in 
the Confederate Congress.^ The convention, it will be ob- 
served, assumed at the outset the functions of a law-making 
body, and, because of further extending its authority by the 
appointment of a Military Board, soon came into conflict with 
both the Governor and the Legislature. When the conven- 
tion empowered the former to call out, if necessary, 60,000 
men it divided the State into two districts, an eastern and a 
western. General Bradley was elected to the command of the 
former and General Pearce, late of the United States Army, 
to that of the latter division. Before General McCulloch, 
stationed in the Indian Territory, could assume any offensive 
operations the Federal General, Lyon, in pursuit of Jackson, 
approached the southern boundary of Missouri; upon this 

* Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 2X 
» Ibid. 



8o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the Military Board called out ten regiments for defence. On 
June 21 it despatched to Richmond a messenger who proposed 
to transfer tO' the Confederate Government all the State 
troops with their arms making, however, a condition prece- 
dent : they were to be employed for the protection of Arkan- 
sas; but as the Secretary of State could make no promise as 
to their future disposition the transfer was not then effected.* 
On July 4 a second effort was made by a member of the Mili- 
tary Board who visited General Hardee, with whom an ar- 
rangement was completed by which a vote should be taken 
among the troops. If a majority of each company consented, 
those so consenting were to be turned over as a company. If 
a majority declined, the company was to be disbanded alto- 
gether. One entire company was thus mustered out, and 
from various motives two or three hundred soldiers returned 
home. This was from the eastern division. The western 
was not so easily disposed of. The Military Board after the 
battle of Springfield directed General Pearce to turn over his 
force to Hardee, who became angry when the agent proposed 
to submit the question of transfer, and refused to allow it to 
be done; this insubordinate conduct he followed up by writing 
an abusive letter to the Board. Pearce then separated his 
troops from McCulloch's command and marched them back 
to Arkansas, where they were informally disbanded and sent 
home. Fearing such a result, the Board had ordered General 
Pearce to do nothing further in the matter, but their de- 
spatches arrived too late.^ 

Governor Rector's account shows Arkansas troops, claimed 
to be 22,000 in number, to have been at that time in a state of 
complete demoralization.^ The Germans and the Irish, as 
well as their descendants, showing little inclination to enlist, 

* Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 24. 

' Ibid. 

• Ibid. 



ARKANSAS 8i 

the Governor ascribed their indifference to a want of oppor- 
tunity for promotion in the service. If this was not the cause, 
then, he thought, authority should be given to draft a regi- 
hment of each race.^ 

More than a third of the voting population was in the field, 
and as late as October they had received no pay except Ar- 
kansas war bonds, the worthlessness of which occasioned 
much murmuring. This discontent was heightened some- 
what by the poor equipment of the regiments, many soldiers 
being without blankets or shoes.^ There were other symp- 
toms of unrest within the State. On the charge of attempted 
insurrection two negro men and a girl were hanged in Mon- 
roe County. 

All this occasioned much uneasiness, but the chief cause of 
alarm was the Union sentiment known to exist in the State. 
In October twenty-seven persons were brought to Little Rock 
as members of a secret Union organization in Van Buren 
County and placed in jail to await a civil trial. Many others 
also were taken about this time, and it was estimated that the 
" Peace and Constitutional Society " numbered i 700 mem- 
bers in Arkansas.^ 

The activity of Federal armies in the West excited so much 
apprehension that Governor Rector on the i8th of February, 
by proclamation, called into immediate service every man in 
the State subject to military duty.^ A Confederate force 
under Price was driven into Arkansas by General Curtis on 
the same day, and within a week the commandant at Poca- 
hontas issued an appeal to every man " to turn out promptly, 
shoulder his musket, and drive the vandals from the State." 
The Richmond Government being unable to assist Arkansas, 

• Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 25. 

• Ibid. 

• Ibid. 

*Ibid., 1862, p. II. 



82 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

she was forced to rely upon her own resources and such aid 
as might be obtained from Missouri, the Indian Territory and 
Texas.^ 

Disaster and a conviction of neglect led the Governor in 
May, in an address to the people, to express his indignation 
and threaten to secede from secession. He said: 

If the arteries of the Confederate heart do not permeate beyond the 
east bank of the Mississippi, let southern Missourians, Arkansians, 
Texans and the great West know it and prepare for the future. Arkan- 
sas lost, abandoned, subjugated is not Arkansas as she entered the Con- 
federate Government. Nor will she remain Arkansas, a Confederate 
State, desolated as a wilderness. Her children, fleeing from the wrath 
to come, will build them a new ark, and launch it on new waters, seeking 
a haven somewhere of equality, safety and rest.* 

After the battle of Pea Ridge General Curtis moved to 
White River, and on May i occupied Batesville, where he 
witnessed many demonstrations of attachment to the Union. 
Judges of courts, clergymen and other leading citizens came 
forward and voluntarily took the oath of allegiance to the 
United States. A threatened advance of the Union forces 
upon Little Rock created the greatest excitement there, and the 
Governor by proclamation ordered the militia to repair imme- 
diately to its defence; but not finding himself sufficiently sup- 
ported he fled.^ The concentration at Corinth of all available 
Confederate strength was the cause of the weakness of Arkan- 
sas at this time. Ten regiments had also been withdrawn from 
the army of General Curtis to reenforce the Federal troops in 
Mississippi. This left him in no condition to march upon the 
State capital, and for the time it was saved. Twelve thousand 
poorly equipped men had assembled there in response to the 
appeal of Governor Rector. 

After the occupation of Helena by Federal troops Mr. Lin- 
coln appointed John S. Phelps, of Missouri, military govern- 

^Ann. Cycl., 1862, p. 1 1. 
' Ibid. 
• Ibid. 



ARKANSAS 83 

or.^ On August 19, 1862, he left St. Louis for Helena; but 
as the contemplated movement was not then made his office 
was of little importance. From the Union refugees at that 
point two regiments of Arkansas men were organized. The 
fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863, however, enabled the Union 
army to assume offensive operations, and the summer had not 
greatly advanced before a strong column was moving on 
Little Rock, the capture of which, September 10, 1863, was a 
fatal blow to Confederate authority throughout the State. 

Amidst all its distresses the northern section of Arkansas 
had maintained its loyalty. Recent reverses to Confederate 
arms encouraged desertion from their ranks, Union sympa- 
thizers became active, and movements begun by them were 
joined by numbers who now regarded the Confederate cause 
as lost. Many, however, fearing a restoration of that au- 
thority, hesitated to identify themselves with the more pro- 
nounced loyalists. A newspaper favorable to the General 
Government was established at the capital. Meetings were 
held, and resolutions pledging unconditional support of the 
Union cause adopted. Citizens, both white and black, were 
organized, and by December, 1863, eight regiments of Arkan- 
sas troops had enlisted in the Federal service. 2 

A still more encouraging symptom was the return of emi- 
nent persons who now came forward to advocate the Union 
cause. Prominent among these was Brigadier-General E. W. 
Gantt, of the Confederate army, recently a prisoner of war 
and pardoned under the Amnesty Proclamation of the Presi- 
dent. Toward the close of 1863 he thus describes the feeling 
of the people : 

The Union sentiment is manifesting itself on all sides and by every in- 
dication — in Union meetings — in desertions from the Confederate army 
— in taking the oath of allegiance unsolicited — in organizing for home 

' N. & H., Vol. VI. p. 346. 
*Ann. Cycl., 1863, p. i5- 



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kept tlioir oKl tl\>i iluiiuK tluN»- lhi>>- v>\U'. ol Unoi. p>i miuI ion .uul 
pluniUM. I »\m't Ivll I'ut tluv WiU- tlu- pioiuK-.t looivni^ mI ol nun I 
rvor >s;>w. .uul lull ol iii^'.hi ' 

I'ho uMuMi >M liiMii'i.il I'.mks t'lvMM {\\c Ki'vl Ktvn- ^•»>unliv 
ih.uii'Oil •MiMlh (lu- .isprrl ol l'\\In.il .iH.uis iii Ai k.iiis.is, 
Km il .ilK'\\r>l .ill llu> ( \miU\Um.iIi' lours in tlic \iiiiulv to 
i\ni»."iMitt.i(\" .i;\uust tlu" .'viu.ill aiiiw ol (iriu-i.il Su^-K\ <om 
pciliiij'. lum to .w{ on i\\c vUMiMtsi\o at I >llK- Uork. riir 
,"">!. 1(0 voiMui:' ouiv- moio (o .i vonsulot .iMo oxlvMil uiuUm I 'on 
li'vloi.ilo vouliol. lov.ili;.ls 1h\miuo .siMiw AwA oi.uiu.illv lo.st 
OtUM\iiV .lllil hope. 

1 vhmI lONOisos. h(>\\o\oi. \\ AM not .\llo\vv\l to intiMiupt [\\c 
iomiMolionsiN ih>liv-\ »>l tlu- ru'sivlonl. .uul ca\\\ \\\ i So | pu-p 
atatioiis wnr lu.i^lo to u\>i j^.iiu.o tho St.iit' ;;o\ oi imuMit. 
rhi,>< i\io\ omout. liko thosi> ni ronnrssoo .uul 1 otn-.i.m.i, was 

l\lSl\l UpvM\ tllO \nmi-Sl\' .uul Koi'vMtSlUUMUMl riov'l.uu.Uiou oi 

l\'v-iMul>oi S. ivS(>;. I'AiMi luMoio thus ,^ti>p h,l^l 1h\mi t.tkoti 
tho Piosiilout was aluM^lv iUvMiKIuio tho vlivoiso cKMuruls ttito 
a power that wouKl uUuuatoly uuvloi'i\\u\c C\nil\\UMato iulltt 
ouv-o in the State. In the prooovHnj^' siunnuM. Jnlv ^;i. iS(\;. 
ho h.ivl w lilten (.ieneial S. A Ihnlhnt: 

I ut\\lor.<tat\il tl\ut SonatvM- SolK^stiatu of Ark;\t\s;\s. thinks of v>lYori»»n U'> 
rfsmne his plivo*^ \\\ tho SriuUr. Of o*M»rso tt»c Senate, juul t\ot 1. \vi>nld 
ileoivlo whether tv> tnln\it or rejeet t»ini. Still I shonUl feel nxt'i^t itUerest 
in the nnesti\M\ It n\a\ he so pjYsenteil as tv> he one of the very great 
est national ii\\t>ortanee: at\vl it tnay he otherwise so presentevl as tv> In- 
v>f no tnv>re than ten\porary \>ersvM>al aM»st\HKM\ee tv< him. 

* Ann. Cyel . »So.;, \y i... 



ARKANSAS 85 

The emancipation proclamation applies to Arkansas. ... I think 
I shall not retract or repudiate it. Those who shall have tasted actual 
freedom I believe can never be slaves or quasi-slaves again. For the 
rest, I believe some plan substantially being gradual emancipation would 
be better for both white and black. The Missouri plan, recently adopted, 
I do not object to on account of the time for ending the institution; but 
I am sorry the beginning should have been postponed for seven years, 
leaving all that time to agitate for the repeal of the whole thing. It 
should begin at once, giving at least the new-born a vested interest in 
freedom which could not be taken away. If Senator Sebastian could 
come with something of this sort from Arkansas, I, at least, should take 
great interest in his case; and I believe a single individual will have 
scarcely done the world so great a service. See him, if you can, and read 
this to him ; but charge him to not make it public for the present.* 

Union officers in the West were urged by Mr. Lincoln in 
October, 1862, to assist and encourage repentant rebel com- 
munities to elect both State officers and members of Con- 
gress.^ As this involved a recognition of existing govern- 
ments it need scarcely be observed that the march of events 
forced the President later to occupy somewhat different 
ground; nor is it more necessary to add, that to his main pur- 
pose, to undermine secession and restore the Union, he ad- 
hered inflexibly. With this fundamental object all his acts 
harmonize. 

At the time of her secession, W. K. Sebastian represented 
Arkansas in the United States Senate and abandoned his seat; 
he was now ready to assist in restoring his State to her old 
status. Of these evidences of disintegration in Confederate 
interests within the State the President was very exactly in- 
formed, and it was because of his conviction that many per- 
sons hitherto supporting that cause were either wavering in 
their allegiance or had become hostile to secession that he 
wrote, January 5, 1864, to General Steele: 

I wish to afford the people of Arkansas an opportunity of taking the 
oath prescribed in the proclamation of December 8, 1863, preparatory to 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 379. 
' Ibid., p. 247. 



86 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

reorganizing a State Government there. Accordingly I send you by Gen- 
eral Kimball some blank books and other blanks, the manner of using 
which will, in the main, be suggested by an inspection of them ; and Gen- 
eral Kimball will add some verbal explanations. 

Please make a trial of the matter immediately at such points as you may 
think likely to give success. I suppose Helena and Little Rock are two 
of them. Detail any officer you may see fit to take charge of the subject 
at each point; and which officer, it may be assumed, will have authority 
to administer the oath. These books, of course, are intended to be perma- 
nent records. Report to me on the subject.^ 

A week had scarcely elapsed when Mr, Lincoln approved 
the suggestions of General Banks relative to reinaugurating a 
civil government for Louisiana, and, doubtless, he knew no 
reason why similar work might not be going on simultane- 
ously in Arkansas; therefore he repeated to General Steele 
what in substance he had already communicated to the 
Federal commander of the Department of the Gulf. His in- 
structions, dated January 20, 1864, and quoted below, are 
self-explanatory, and in no important particular differ from 
the Louisiana Plan : 

Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petition me that an election 
may be held in that State, at which to elect a governor thereof; . . . 
that it be assumed at said election and thenceforward that the constitu- 
tion and laws of the State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, except 
that the constitution is so modified as to declare that " there shall be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the punishment for 
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; but the General 
Assembly may make such provision for the free people as shall recognize 
and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and 
which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their 
present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class ; " and also 
except that all now existing laws in relation to slaves are inoperative and 
void ; that said election to be held on the twenty-eighth day of March next 
at all the usual voting places of the State, or all such as voters may attend 
for that purpose ; that the voters attending at each place at 8 o'clock in the 
morning of said day, may choose judges and clerks of election for that 
place ; that all persons qualified by said constitution and laws, and tak- 
ing the oath prescribed in the President's proclamation of December the 

^ Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 467. 



ARKANSAS 87 

8th, 1863, either before or at the election, and none others, may be voters, 
provided that persons having the qualifications aforesaid, and being in 
the volunteer military service of the United States, may vote once wher- 
ever they may be at voting places ; that each set of judges and clerks may 
make return directly to you on or before the eleventh day of April next ; 
that in all other respects said election may be conducted according to said 
modified constitution and laws ; that on receipt of said returns, you count 
said votes, and that if the number shall reach or exceed five thousand four 
hundred and six, you canvass said votes and ascertain who shall thereby 
appear to have been elected governor; and that on the eighteenth day of 
April next, the person so appearing to have been elected, and appearing be- 
fore you at Little Rock to have, by you, administered to him an oath to 
support the Constitution of the United States and said modified constitu- 
tion of the State of Arkansas, and actually taking said oath, be, by you, 
declared qualified, and be enjoined to immediately enter upon the duties 
of the office of governor of said State ; and that you thereupon declare 
the constitution of the State of Arkansas to have been modified and 
amended as aforesaid by the action of the people as aforesaid. 

You will please order an election immediately, and perform the other 
parts assigned you, with necessary incidentals, all according to the fore- 
going.' 

By discussion and organization the elements opposed to 
the Richmond Government aroused so much enthusiasm that 
Unionists anticipated the wishes of the President by meeting, 
January 8, 1864, in convention at Little Rock. This as- 
sembly, composed of forty-four delegates representing, as 
they claimed, twenty-two of the fifty-four counties in the 
State, was made up of members elected at various mass meet- 
ings by very meagre votes. This at least was an objection 
then urged by those who were adverse to the purposes of the 
convention. They further stated that many of the counties 
represented were without the Federal military lines. It was 
admitted that if these counties lay beyond Union lines neither 
were they occupied by Confederate forces, and that gen- 
erally the delegates were gentlemen of character and patriot- 



Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 472-473. 
' Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 29 ; Hough's American Constitutions, Vol. IL p. 81. 



88 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

In a published address the convention stated frankly : 

We found after remaining at Little Rock about a week, under a tem- 
porary organization, that delegates were present from twenty-two coun- 
ties, elected by the people, and that six other counties had held elections, 
and that their representatives were looked for daily. We then organized 
the Convention permanently, and determined that while we could not 
properly claim to be the people of Arkansas in Convention assembled, 
with full and final authority to adopt a constitution, yet, being the repre- 
sentatives, by election, of a considerable portion of the State, and under- 
standing, as we believed, the sentiment of nearly all our citizens who de- 
sire the immediate benefits of a government under the authority of the 
United States, we also determined to present a constitution and plan of 
organization, which, if adopted by them, becomes at once their act as 
effectually as if every county in the State had been represented in the Con- 
vention. * 

An amended constitution was adopted by this convention 
on January 22. By it the act of secession was declared null 
and void; slavery was abolished immediately and uncondi- 
tionally, and the Confederate debt wholly repudiated. ^ These 
important changes in the fundamental law of the State indi- 
cate the sentiments of the delegates. Isaac Murphy was ap- 
pointed Provisional Governor; C. C. Bliss, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor and R. T. J. White, Secretary of State. These officers 
were inaugurated on the same day that the convention adopted 
the constitution; this by its schedule was to be submitted to 
a popular vote at an election to be held March 14, when State 
officers and Representatives in Congress would also be 
chosen.^ 

Ignorant that the movement to restore a civil government 
had proceeded so far, Mr. Lincoln had sent his instructions 
to General Steele. As these had been carefully considered 
it was feared the work of the convention would differ in some 
essential particular from the plan outlined for the Federal 

^ Quoted in N. & H., Vol. VIII. p. 414. 
' Hough's Amer. Cons., Vol. II. p. 81. 
* Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 29. 



ARKANSAS 89 

commander. To prevent such a consequence the President 
wrote General Steele again on January t.'j as follows : 

I have addressed a letter to you and put it in the hands of Mr. Gantt 
and other Arkansas gentlemen, containing a program for an election in 
that State. This letter will be handed you by some of these gentlemen. 
Since writing it, I see that a Convention in Arkansas having the same gen- 
eral object, has taken some action, which I am afraid may clash somewhat 
with my program. I therefore can do no better than to ask you to see 
Mr. Gantt immediately on his return, and with him do what you and he 
may deem necessary to harmonize the two plans into one, and then put 
it through with all possible vigor. Be sure to retain the free-State Consti- 
tutional provision in some unquestionable form and you and he can fix 
the rest. The points I have made in the program have been well con- 
sidered. Take hold with an honest heart and a strong hand. Do not let 
any questionable man control or influence you.^ 

The President's interest in the proceedings of the con- 
vention and his anxiety about the outcome of its delibera- 
tions appear in a letter to General Steele written three days 
after the above. ^ So favorable were his impressions of the 
progress reported that he believed the best his subordinate 
could do "would be to help them on their own plan"; of 
this, however, General Steele, who was on the ground, was to 
be the judge. To Governor Murphy he telegraphed, February 
6, that his order concerning an election was made in ignor- 
ance of any action which the convention might take; also 
that his subsequent communication to General Steele directed 
that officer to assist, not to hinder, the delegates.^ General 
Thayer also was informed that the apparent conflict between 
the President and the convention was altogether accidental.* 
On February 17, Mr. Lincoln explained the situation more 
fully to William M. Fishback : 

When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance 
that your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 475. 
' Ibid., p. 476. 

* Ibid., p. 479. 

* Ibid., p. 482. 



90 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

latter fact I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. I have 
sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four despatches to you 
and others, saying that he. General Steele, must be master, but that it 
will probably be best for him to merely help the convention on its own 
plan. Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement 
in anything, and General Steele, commanding the military and being on 
the ground, is the best man to be that master. Even now citizens arc 
telegraphing me to postpone the election to a later day than either that 
fixed by the convention or by me. This discord must be silenced.^ 

The President evidently had learned something from his 
recent experience with his friends and subordinates in Louisi- 
ana. General Steele from his headquarters at Little Rock 
issued on February 29 the following address to the people of 
Arkansas : 

The convention of your citizens, held at Little Rock during the last 
month [says this proclamation], has adopted a constitution and submitted 
it to you for your approval or rejection. That constitution is based upon 
the principles of freedom, and it is for you now to say, by your volun- 
tary and unbiased action, whether it shall be your fundamental law. 
While it may have defects, in the main it is in accordance with the views 
of that portion of the people who have been resisting the fratricidal at- 
tempts which have been made during the last three years. The conven- 
tion has fixed the 14th day of March next on which to decide this great 
question, and the General commanding is only following the instruc- 
tions of the Government when he says to you that every facility will be 
offered for the expression of your sentiments, uninfluenced by any con- 
siderations save those which affect your own interests and those of your 
posterity. . . . The election will be held and the return be made in 
accordance with the schedule adopted by the convention, and no inter- 
ference from any quarter will be allowed to prevent the free expression 
of the loyal men of the State on that day.* 

The election pursuant to this notice began March 14, 1864, 
the polls remaining open for three days. For the constitu- 
tion 12,177, and against it 226, votes were cast' Isaac Mur- 
phy, against whom there was no opposing candidate, was 
chosen Governor by 12,430 votes cast by the citizens of more 

^ Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 483-484. 
'Ann. Cycl., 1864, pp. 29-30. 
•Ibid., p. 30. 



ARKANSAS 91 

than forty counties. As early as March 18 the President 
appears to have received from the Governor-elect some favor- 
able tidings/ and on April o.'j, when more complete returns 
had reached him from the same source, he expressed in a 
telegram his gratification at the large vote, more than double 
that required by the Louisiana Plan, and also at the intelli- 
gence that the State government, including the Legislature, 
was organized and in working order. ^ 

Besides a Governor five other officers of the executive and 
several members of the judicial branch of government to- 
gether with many county officials were chosen. ^ At the 
same time three Representatives in Congress, T. M. Jacks, A. 
A. C. Rogers and J. M. Johnson, were elected from the First, 
Second and Third Districts respectively. The Legislature, 
composed of twenty three Senators and fifty-nine members of 
Assembly, met on the nth of April, and during the session, 
which ended June i succeeding, appointed William Fishback 
and Elisha Baxter United States Senators to fill vacancies 
caused by the secession of the late incumbents, R. W. Johnson 
and William K. Sebastian. After investigation by a commit- 
tee of Congress, however, they were declared not entitled to 
seats ; but as each possessed such a title to membership as to 
justify inquiry they were paid mileage. This consideration 
they were denied when^ without new action, they subsequently 
presented themselves at a special session of the Senate ; on that 
occasion they were accompanied by William D. Snow, who 
had been chosen to succeed Fishback. It was agreed, March 9, 
1865, to postpone till the next session of Congress considera- 
tion of the credentials of Mr. Snow. The House, without ad- 
mitting as Representatives the three claimants for seats, had 
consented to allow them mileage. Arkansas, unlike Louisiana 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 501. 

' Ibid., p. 515. 

' Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 30. 



92 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and Tennessee, did not participate in the Presidential election 
of 1864, because of a feeling that its electoral vote would not 
be received even if offered. This course appears to have been 
adopted on the suggestion of their representatives, who re- 
turned with such a conviction from a sojourn in Washington.^ 
A succeeding chapter, in tracing the origin and progress of 
the controversy between the Executive and Legislative 
branches of Government, will describe more fully the attitude 
of Congress toward Mr. Lincoln's efforts at reconstruction 
and afford an opportunity for discussing both the nature of 
the conventions by which civil government had been restored 
in Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas, and the constitutional- 
ity of the various Executive acts by which this reestablish- 
ment was assisted. 

^ See remarks of Senator Pomeroy, February 2, 1865, Congressional 
Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 555- 



IV 

VIRGINIA 

THE Federal Government, as already observed, was con- 
strained at an early stage of the Civil War to define 
its attitude toward loyal citizens of the seceding 
States. The earliest indications of the policy adopted may be 
discerned in the case of Virginia, which presents the only in- 
stance of a people in any of the insurrectionary States organ- 
izing open resistance to revolution. All departments of gov- 
ernment in that Commonwealth having gone over to rebel- 
lion, the loyal minority were left without any organization for 
the conduct of domestic affairs. In these circumstances they 
called a convention which by an original act of sovereignty re- 
constituted the government. The progress of the conflict was 
attended in that State by consequences not elsewhere observed, 
and it is chiefly because of this fact that a slight departure from 
exact chronological order is believed to be justified. The 
principles which guided the Administration will be easily 
comprehended by considering their application to the novel 
and somewhat embarrassing questions that arose before re- 
bellion was finally crushed within the borders of that once 
glorious Commonwealth. 

" The Convention of Virginia " which, by authority of the 
Legislature, assembled at Richmond, February 13, 1861, 
passed on April 17 following an ordinance of secession from 
the United States.^ Though the injunction of secrecy was 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 7. 

93 



94 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

never removed from this proceeding, the tally, discovered 
soon after among the private papers of a member, shows that 
88 delegates favored and 55 opposed the measure; one was 
excused from voting, eight were either absent or silent.^ 
This strong opposition is explained in part by the physical 
characteristics of the State. 

The principal chain of the Alleghanies formed in the west- 
ern portion of the Old Dominion a lofty range which parts 
the streams finding their way into the Ohio and the Potomac 
from those that reach the lower waters of Chesapeake Bay 
or the sounds of North Carolina. The country southeast of 
this ridge, including the Shenandoah Valley, the Piedmont 
district, the middle division and the tide-water region, con- 
tained about three fourths of the white inhabitants, and some- 
thing less than three fourths of the area, of Virginia. In this 
section were found many large tobacco plantations cultivated 
almost exclusively by negroes. Indeed, it was in the light 
soil of the tide-water counties of Virginia that English 
settlers in America first attempted, nearly two and one half 
centuries before, the memorable experiment of African slave 
labor. Soon after 1808, when their importation was pro- 
hibited by act of Congress, slaves were bred in Virginia to 
supply the demand of Southern markets, and by i860 the 
bondmen in that Commonwealth had become almost two 
thirds as numerous as the master race.^ It is sufficiently ac- 
curate to say that the triangular district bounded on the north 
by the winding course of the Potomac, by the parallel of 36° 
31' on the south and stretching from the Atlantic to the crest 
of the Alleghany mountains, comprised all that part of " the 
good old commonwealth " which was then either historically 
important or interesting. This prolific soil was the birthplace 
of many of America's most illustrious sons; Its inhabitants for 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 7n. 

* Eighth Census, pp. 516-522. 



VIRGINIA 95 

the most part were proud to trace their descent from the 
earliest settlers along the James; many were wealthy, and all 
had long been distinguished for their hospitality. 

Beyond this favored region the country, which slopes 
gradually down to the upper Potomac and the Ohio, is 
marked by a succession of parallel ranges separated by fertile 
valleys; but like the large tract which encircled the Adiron- 
dacks and a similar one in northern Pennsylvania, the Vir- 
ginian wilderness remained untouched by the ceaseless tide of 
immigration which at the close of the Revolution swept west- 
ward from the Atlantic seaboard. For this uninviting region 
the second Federal census indicates less than two inhabitants 
to the square mile; by 1810 pioneers from the line of the Ohio 
river encroached on its silent forests. At the next census, 
however, a portion was still unoccupied, but in the succeeding 
decennial period it received from various points, chiefly from 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and New England, many enterprising 
and thrifty settlers. The sixth census, that of 1840, represents 
the entire tract as sparsely inhabited.^ Its abundant resources, 
then but little developed, subsequently gave rise to a great 
variety of profitable industries, and it advanced rapidly in 
population. Extensive plantations, however, were few; the 
number of slaves, owing somewhat to the facility for escape, 
had always been small, and in the ten years preceding the out- 
break of hostilities had actually diminished by upwards of two 
thousand.^ Though it then contained nearly one fourth of the 
whites, it included no more than one thirtieth of the negroes 
in the State. Their labor, too, except in other than agricul- 
tural occupations, afforded little remuneration. In conse- 
quence of its productions as well as its location both the 

'Density maps in Tenth Census (Population), pp. xii-xiii, xiv-xv, xvi- 
xvii. 

* Blair in Appendix to Globe, pp. 327-331, 2 Sess. 37th Cong.; Eighth 
Census, pp. 516-522; Seventh Census, pp. 242-261. 



96 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

interests and sympathies of the people were with the adjoining 
States of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

But, apart from geographical considerations, northwestern 
Virginia had a grievance of long standing: for years its in- 
habitants had complained that they were not fairly repre- 
sented in the Legislature, and the immunity from taxation 
enjoyed by their fellow-citizens east of the mountains was a 
discrimination too gross to escape attention. The slave 
oligarchy, they declared, possessed and wielded for its own 
advantage the political power of the State. The question of 
its dismemberment had been discussed as early as 1829-30, 
when the mountain sons of Virginia were on the verge of 
revolution. The East then yielded a pittance of power, which, 
though far short of the demands, of justice, reconciled western 
Virginians for the time. In 1850 they were again on the 
point of insurrection. On this occasion adequate representa- 
tion was conceded in the lower though withheld in the upper 
chamber of the General Assembly, the dominant party thus 
retaining control of that body as well as the benefits of a con- 
stitutional provision by which slaves under the age of twelve 
years were exempt from taxation, and of those liable to assess- 
ment none could be valued at more than three hundred dollars 
even if worth in the market a thousand dollars or upwards.* 
Moreover, much of the public revenue was expended upon in- 
ternal improvements for the eastern section of the State. The 
Shenandoah Valley, at one time showing signs of discontent, 
was bound by the construction of railways, in social as well as 
in commercial life, more firmly to Richmond. In short, the 
Alleghanies formed a barrier almost completely cutting off 
intercourse between the two divisions. Their relations were 
well expressed by Governor Pierpont, who told Senator Wade 
that there was no communication whatever between the 
people except the furnishing a few members to the Legislature 

* Parker, The Formation of West Virginia, p. 125. 



VIRGINIA 97 

and a few inmates of the penitentiary.^ Their different in- 
terests tended to aHenate the sections; the hand of nature had 
traced the hne of separation. 

Now, however, that a crisis was impending, the Richmond 
authorities, to harmonize every element within their Com- 
monwealth, were willing to forego this privilege-; to share the 
burdens of State administration, to meet State liabilities, and 
generally to place themselves on a footing of equality with 
their fellow-citizens along the Ohio. This concession, by a 
majority of 50,000, was actually extorted in an election from 
the prudence or the fears of disunionists whose magnanimity 
was duly emphasized by Governor Letcher in an appeal to 
the people of the northwest.^ The latter refused, notwith- 
standing, to acquiesce in the action of the secession convention 
which, so far as it was able to do so, carried their State, as a 
political organization, out of the Union. 

It may be affirmed generally that the professional politi- 
cians and large property owners of this region were disloyal; ^ 
State officials with surprising unanimity were ardent advo- 
cates of secession and active in committing their Common- 
wealth to its support. An overwhelming proportion of the 
plain people, however, were devotedly attached to the Union 
and determined on its preservation. Therefore when the 
Richmond State government attempted to execute its laws in 
these parts it encountered the . most spirited resistance. 
Especially was this true in the Pan Handle counties, where 
opposition was promptly organized. 

Probably the first consultation upon the grave questions 
that had arisen was held at the Court House in Wellsburgh, 
Brooke County, where a large number of citizens from that 
and the adjacent county of Hancock assembled to hear the 

* Globe, 2 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 3038. 

* Ann. Cycl., 1861, pp. 743-744- 

* The Formation of West Virginia, p. 36. 



98 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

report of Mr. Campbell Tarr, their delegate to Richmond. 
From Harrison came Hon. John S. Carlile, who, like Mr. 
Tarr, narrowly escaped with his life from that city, where 
he had represented his county in the convention. They re- 
ported the proceedings of that body and urged immediate 
preparation to resist. As a result of this discussion a com- 
mittee of four was appointed to procure arms and ammuni- 
tion in Washington. En route thither they had an interview 
at Harrisburg with Governor Curtin, who not only expressed 
sympathy with their object, but promised assistance if neces- 
sary. On arriving at the national capital they called upon Hon. 
Edwin M. Stanton, who was a native of Steubenville, Ohio, 
and a warm personal friend of each member of the committee. 
They were immediately presented to Mr. Cameron, Secretary 
of War, who, on learning the purpose of their visit, manifested 
some hesitation as to his legal right to comply with their 
request. Upon this Mr. Stanton declared with emphasis that 
" the law of necessity gives the right," and added, " let them 
have arms and ammunition; we will look for the book law 
afterwards." ^ Two thousand rifles with suitable ammuni- 
tion were then furnished, and as security for their proper 
use Mr. Stanton tendered his own name. From Wellsburgh, 
where they were temporarily kept in expectation of a rebel 
attack, these arms were sent for distribution to Wheeling. 

United States troops from Ohio and Indiana together with 
local volunteers soon drove the Confederate forces from this 
region, and subsequently, though often menaced, it was al- 
most exempt from the ravages of war.^ Thus encouraged. 
Union men resolved to form a political organization coexten- 
sive with Virginia or to establish a separate and distinct State. 
Preliminary movements toward that end were promptly in- 
augurated, and, April 22, 1861, five days after the passage of 

* The Formation of West Virginia, p. 42. 

* Ann. Cycl., 1861, pp. 742-743. 



I 



VIRGINIA 



99 



the ordinance, nearly 1,200 citizens of Clarksburgh de- 
nounced in a public meeting the action of the secession con- 
vention and recommended the people of northwestern Vir- 
ginia to assemble on May 13 at Wheeling. On the 4th a 
Union mass meeting had been held at Kingwood, near the 
northern border. The separation of western from eastern 
Virginia was declared by this body to be essential to the main- 
tenance of their liberties. They also resolved to elect a Repre- 
sentative to Congress. On the following day there convened 
at Wheeling another assemblage, which considered the ques- 
tion of separating from that portion of the State in rebellion. 
About the same time other gatherings were held in different 
localities. 

There were thousands of eager and earnest patriots in the 
city of Wheeling on May 13, when nearly four hundred dele- 
gates, mostly appointed by primary meetings, and represent- 
ing twenty-six counties, assembled to deliberate on the situ- 
ation. The best method of organizing opposition to treason 
-was the question : how to inaugurate a government which 
the Federal authorities would recognize and protect ? ^ On 
this important subject there is said to have been considerable 
diversity of opinion; the decision finally reached was based 
upon a suggestion by one of the members that since Governor 
Letcher and other State officers, by adhering to the pretended 
ordinance of secession, had forfeited their powers, and the 
existing constitution made no provision for such an emer- 
gency, the only way was to ask the people, the source of all 
political power, to send delegates to a convention authorized 
to supply their places with loyal men. This proposal was 
presented to the meeting and adopted with great unanimity.^ 
A General State Committee, empowered to appoint sub-com- 
mittees in all counties where practicable, was then named, 

* The Formation of West Virginia, p. 43. 



loo LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and a stirring address put forth. It announced their purpose 
and urged all loyal citizens to elect representatives to a second 
convention. Copies of this appeal v/ere sent to influential citi- 
zens throughout the State, and it was agreed after a session of 
three days to choose on May 26 delegates to the proposed 
convention. 

This election having been held at the time appointed, rep- 
resentatives from nearly forty counties assembled at Wheel- 
ing on June 11. The convention, numbering 98 members, 
organized by selecting for its president Hon Arthur I. Bore- 
man. Before proceeding to business the following oath was 
administered to the delegation from each county : " We 
solemnly declare that we will support the Constitution of the 
United States and the laws made in pursuance thereof, as the 
supreme law of the land, anything in the Ordinance of the 
Convention that assembled in Richmond on the 13th day of 
February last to the contrary notwithstanding, so help us 
God." 1 The State government was reconstituted on the 13th 
by an ordinance declaring vacant all places, whether legisla- 
tive, executive or judicial, whose incumbents had espoused the 
cause of secession. This class, as already observed, included 
nearly every official in Virginia. These vacancies the con- 
vention supplied by the appointment of loyal men. In the con- 
stitution they made an important alteration which prescribed 
the number of delegates necessary to constitute a quorum in 
the General Assembly. All State, county and town officials 
were required to take an oath of allegiance which pledged 
support of both the Federal Constitution and the restored 
government of Virginia. On June 17 a declaration of inde- 
pendence was adopted without one dissenting voice; it de- 
nounced the usurpation of the Richmond convention, which 
had assumed to place the resources of Virginia at the disposal 

* Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 743 ; The Formation of West Virginia, p. 45, gives 
the oath in a form slightly different. 



VIRGINIA loi 

of the Confederate Government, to which power it repudiated 
allegiance. Resolutions expressing a determination never to 
submit to the ordinance of secession, but to maintain the rights 
of Virginia in the Union, were then passed. All persons in 
arms against the national Government were commanded to 
disband and to return to their allegiance. Though the mem- 
bers seriously endeavored to reorganize their government, it 
was with an express declaration that a division of the Com- 
monwealth was a paramount object of their labors, and they 
decided, June 20, by a unanimous vote in favor of ultimate 
separation. 

Under an ordinance previously adopted Hon. Francis H. 
Pierpont was chosen Governor on the same day; a lieutenant- 
governor, an attorney-general and an executive council of five 
were also appointed. Other administrative offices were subse- 
quently filled. The new incumbents were to exercise their 
functions for six months or until successors should be elected 
and qualified. The convention on June 25, subject in an emer- 
gency to be re-assembled by the Governor and Council, then 
adjourned to August 6, 1861. 

Before concluding this session the convention directed all 
members willing to swear fealty to the Union, who were 
elected to the assembly on May 23 preceding, to meet on the 
1st of July at Wheeling. At the time of their election these 
representatives were destined for Richmond. In addition to 
those regularly chosen under the old law of the Common- 
wealth, others pursuant to an ordinance of the convention 
were elected to fill vacancies. All were to qualify them- 
selves by taking an oath or affirmation of allegiance to the 
United States and to the reorganized government of Virginia. 
These members, chiefly from the western counties, were to 
compose the law-making body, which was invested with all 
the powers and duties pertaining to the General Assembly. 

The new Governor was inaugurated on June 20, and, after 



102 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

taking the oath of office, said : " We have been driven into 
the position we occupy to-day by the usurpers at the South, 
who have inaugurated this war upon the soil of Virginia, and 
have made it the great Crimea of this contest. We, represent- 
ing the loyal citizens of Virginia, have been bound to assume 
the position we have assumed to-day for the protection of 
ourselves, our wives, our children, and our property. We, 
I repeat, have been driven to assume this position; and now 
we are but recurring to the great fundamental principle of 
our fathers, that to the loyal people of a State belongs the 
law-making power of that State. The loyal people are en- 
titled to the government and governmental authority of the 
State. And, fellow-citizens, it is the assumption of that au- 
thority upon which we are now about to enter." ^ 

" It was not the object of the Wheeling convention," he de- 
clared on a later occasion, " to set up any new government in 
the State, or separate, or other government than the one 
under which they had always lived. "^ 
"^ From these utterances his hearers must have concluded that 
the reorganized government was not for a part but for the 
whole of Virginia. Indeed, it was to the discernment of Mr. 
Pierpont that Virginia loyalists were chiefly indebted for a 
legal solution of the intricate problem that confronted them. 
While Carlile and others were urging a counter-revolution, 
Mr. Pierpont was carefully studying the provisions of the 
Federal Constitution. The clause of that instrument which 
guarantees a republican form of government was designed, 
he believed, to meet just such an emergency as had arisen. 
Though this conservative suggestion was not at first received 
with much favor, it continued gradually to win adherents until 
its propriety was universally recognized.^ By thus proceed- 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 743- 
'Ann. Cycl., 1862, p. 801. 
'Mr. A. W. Campbell in The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 14, 1897. 



VIRGINIA 103 

ing along constitutional lines a State government in all its 
branches was soon established in every county not occupied 
by an armed foe. 

The Legislature of the restored State assembled, July 2, at 
Wheeling and assumed the full exercise of its powers. Two 
United States Senators, Waitman T. Willey, whose fidelity 
many considered doubtful, and John S. Carlile, an able, elo- 
quent and then a trusted leader, were elected, July 9; the 
former to fill the vacancy occasioned by the withdrawal of 
James M. Mason, the latter to succeed Robert M. T. Hunter, 
who also had abdicated his seat in Congress. Both were 
admitted, though not without a vigorous protest from the 
minority, to seats at the first session of the Thirty-seventh 
Congress, which met on July 4, 1861. 

Their certificates were presented, July 13, by Andrew John- 
son. Senator Bayard entered a protest. Their admission, he 
said, would be a recognition of an organization that was not 
the regular government of the Commonwealth. Mr. Letcher 
was still Governor of Virginia, his term not having expired. 
The Senate had no authority to create a new State out of a 
part of an existing one. He then moved to refer their cre- 
dentials to the Committee on the Judiciary. His colleague, 
Mr. Saulsbury, objected, that Mason and Hunter were not 
expelled until July 11, whereas the claimants were appointed 
two days previously, at a time when no vacancies had occurred. 
To this Senator Johnson replied that the vacancies did in 
fact exist at the time of their election, July 9, and that the 
expulsion of Mason and Hunter was not merely a declaration 
that vacancies existed, but their seats were regarded as filled, 
and the occupants expelled from the floor of the Senate. 

Mr. Bayard denied that, even if Mason and Hunter were 
guilty of the alleged crimes, there was any power in either 
the Governor or Legislature to terminate their appointments; 
they might die, they could be removed by expulsion, but 



104 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

vacancies could not be anticipated by the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia. The name of Mr. Pierpont could convey no authority 
to their credentials. On the question of reference five Senators 
voted in the affirmative, thirty-five in the negative. The oath 
was therefore administered and they took their seats, July 13, 
at the special session which began on the 4th. ^ 

A resolution was passed by the House of Delegates of the 
reorganized government instructing the Senators and request- 
ing their Representatives in Congress to vote the necessary ap- 
propriation of men and money for a vigorous prosecution of 
the war, and to oppose all compromise. A stay law was also 
enacted by the Legislature, and a bill passed which authorized 
the Governor to organize a patrol in such counties as might 
require it; two hundred thousand dollars were appropriated 
for military purposes. 

On August 6, 1 86 1, the Wheeling convention reassembled. 
Hitherto in all its proceedings relative to a reorganization 
there had been great unanimity, but when the delegates re- 
turned they were conscious of a strong popular sentiment in 
favor of erecting a new State, a subject that had been intro- 
duced, though not much discussed, before adjournment. This 
determination among their constituents seriously troubled 
many of the members. Political aspirations had been awak- 
ened; many of them had enjoyed the benefits of the humbler 
offices under the mother State; the Union forces, it was confi- 
dently expected, would soon crush the insurrection in Virginia, 
and the reorganized government, with themselves at its head, 
would be acquiesced in by their recent oppressors. To their 
ambition this hope was far more flattering than the prospect 
of administering the affairs of a comparatively small State 
on the western frontier of the Old Dominion. Then, too, the 
idea of dismemberment was certain to wound Virginia State 
pride. Moreover, the movement to form an independent com- 

^ Globe, I Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 103-109. 



VIRGINIA 105 

monwealth, when the reorganized government itself had been 
scarcely recognized, would look premature. Sentiments of this 
nature had begun to possess the minds of many delegates 
about the time of their return. 

In compliance with what appeared to be a popular demand, 
however, these considerations were disregarded, and the con- 
vention by a vote of 50 to 28 passed an ordinance authorizing 
the formation out of the Commonwealth of Virginia of a new 
State to be called Kanawha, which was to embrace thirty- 
nine counties between the Alleghanies and the Ohio, provided 
the people thereof, at an election to be held on October 24, 
should express themselves in favor of such a measure; on cer- 
tain prescribed conditions other contiguous counties could be 
annexed. At the election which was to decide this important 
question delegates to a constitutional convention were also to 
be chosen, and, if separation was approved by the people, these 
representatives were to assemble at Wheeling on November 
26 and organize themselves into a convention. Any consti- 
tution which they might adopt was to be submitted to the 
qualified electors of the counties concerned. The new com- 
monwealth was to assume a just proportion of Virginia's 
public debt as it existed prior to January i, 1861 ; private 
rights derived from her laws were to be valid under the pro- 
posed State, and were to be determined by the laws then exist- 
ing in Virginia.^ 

The convention, as previously noted, reassembled on 
August 6. Three days later one A. F. Ritchie, a member 
from Marion County, forwarded to Attorney-General Bates at 
Washington a letter which requested and received an imme- 
diate reply. Mr. Ritchie published the response, of which this 
is the important part : 

The formation of a new State out of Western Virginia is an original, 
independent act of revolution. I do not deny the power of revolution (I 

* The Formation of West Virginia, pp. 47-48. 



io6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

do not call it right, for it is never prescribed ; it exists in force only, and 
has and can have no law but the will of the revolutionists). Any attempt 
to carry it out involves a plain breach of both the constitutions — of Vir- 
ginia and of the Nation. And hence it is plain that you cannot take such a 
course without weakening, if not destroying, your claims upon the sym- 
pathy and support of the General Government, and without disconcerting 
the plan already adopted by both Virginia and the General Government 
for the reorganization of the revolted States and the restoration of the 
integrity of the Union. 

That plan I understand to be this: When a State, by its perverted 
functionaries, has declared itself out of the Union, we avail ourselves of 
all the sound and loyal elements of the State — all who own allegiance to 
and claim protection of the Constitution — to form a State government as 
nearly as may be upon the former model, and claiming to be the very State 
which has been in part overthrown by the successful rebellion. In this 
way we establish a constitutional nucleus around which all the shattered 
elements of the commonwealth may meet and combine, and thus restore 
the old State in its original integrity. 

This, I verily thought, was the plan adopted at Wheeling, and recog- 
nized and acted upon by the General Government here. Your conven- 
tion annulled the revolutionary proceedings at Richmond, both in the 
Convention and the General Assembly, and your new Governor formally 
demanded of the President the fulfillment of the constitutional guaranty 
in favor of Virginia — Virginia as known to our fathers and to us. The 
President admitted the obligation, and promised his best efforts to fulfill 
it. And the Senate admitted your Senators, not as representing a new 
and nameless State, now for the first time heard of in our history, but as 
representing " the good old commonwealth." 

Must all this be undone, and a new and hazardous experiment be ven- 
tured upon, at the moment when dangers and difficulties are thickening 
around us? I hope not. ... I had rejoiced in the movement in 
Western Virginia, as a legal, constitutional, and safe refuge from revolu- 
tion and anarchy ; as at once an example and fit instrument for the resto- 
ration of all the revolted States. 

I have not time now to discuss the subject in its various bearings. 
What I have written is written with a running pen and will need your 
charitable criticism. 

If I had time to think, I could give persuasive reasons for declining the 
attempt to create a new State at this perilous time. At another time I 
might be willing to go fully into the question, but now I can say no 
more.^ 

^The Formation of West Virginia, pp. 48-50; also Ann. Cycl., 1861, 
P- 745. 



VIRGINIA 107 

Mr. Ritchie, who had opposed a dismemberment of the old 
Commonwealth, was anxious, no doubt, to justify his vote by 
the endorsement of an eminent public character, and it is not 
improbable that before finally determining his action in so im- 
portant a matter he was desirous of the opinion of some mem- 
ber of the Administration. Mr. Bates's communication is 
dated the 12th; the convention did not adjourn till the 25th of 
August. At any time prior to January i, 1862, it was subject 
to be reassembled by its president or by the Governor. 

The election of October 24, by a vote of 18,408 to 781, de- 
cided in favor of a division of the Commonwealth.^ At the 
same time fifty-three delegates, representing forty-one coun- 
ties, were chosen to frame a constitution for the proposed 
State. Of this convention John Hall was elected president 
and Ellery R. Hall secretary. The task before it, by no means 
an easy one, was to draft a fundamental law that would se- 
cure the approval of the people of western Virginia, of the 
Legislature of the restored State and of Congress. After a 
session of nearly three months it adjourned, February 18, 
1862. Commissioners to convoke this body, should its work 
be recognized by Congress, had first been appointed. On De- 
cember 3 preceding the name of the new State was changed 
to West Virginia. 

In the convention were many members who desired silence 
on the subject of slavery; others saw clearly that to ignore 
the cause of their present troubles would ensure a rejection 
of their work by Congress. This element felt assured that 
the temper of the national Legislature would not indulge 
the slave power by giving it two additional Senators besides 
an increase of strength in the Electoral College. There 
was also a sentiment which desired a postponement of the 
disturbing question until all others had first been determined. 
The friends of gradual emancipation were warned by leading 

* The Formation of West Virginia, p. 57. 



io8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Republicans in Congress that the constitution would not be 
recognized without a satisfactory provision on this subject. 
The " peculiar institution," however, still possessed influence 
enough to defeat such a purpose, and the convention ad- 
journed without inserting any expression concerning slavery. 
Still, the friends of emancipation did not despair. Mr. 
Parker, one of these, caused to be printed in Ohio instructions 
to their assemblymen to make the following provision a part 
of their constitution if the speedy admission of the new State 
into the Union should appear to require it : " All children 
born of slave mothers in this State, after the constitution 
goes into operation, shall be free, males at the age of twenty- 
eight years, and females at the age of eighteen years, and the 
children of such females to be free at birth." ^ 

This unauthorized action of Mr. Parker, in connection with 
appeals through the newspapers, was not without effect. At 
their county-seat the citizens of Upshur passed, among other 
resolutions, the following : " That we, the citizens of Upshur 
County, do endorse and accept the policy recommended by the 
present Chief Magistrate of the United States, (Abraham 
Lincoln) in his message of the 6th of March, 1862, to Con- 
gress, in regard to the emancipation of the slaves of the 
border States, as the policy that should be adopted by the 
people of West Virginia; and we do now pledge ourselves 
to advocate, defend and carry out the said policy, as the 
most promotive of our liberty, safety and prosperity in the 
Union." ^ Another resolution, adopted on this occasion, de 
clared that the meeting expected the convention would have 
given the people an opportunity of expressing their sentiments 
on slavery in the proposed State, The convention, they com- 
plained, did not reflect the popular will. 

The Union men and the loyal press of other counties fol- 

* The Formation of West Virginia, p. 79. 
*Ibid., p. 93. 



VIRGINIA 109 

lowed the example of Upshur by approving the measure or 
copying the " Instructions." Thus at the time of voting on 
the constitution an informal poll on slavery was obtained in 
twenty counties. 

A faction in the convention proposed to annex the Shenan- 
doah Valley with its large negro population; the success of 
such a plan, it was well understood, would ensure a rejection 
of the new State by Congress. To anticipate somewhat the 
events presently to be narrated it may be remarked at this 
point that the adversaries of the measure in Washington em- 
ployed precisely the same tactics to defeat the movement for 
erecting an independent State. 

The new establishment under Pierpont was regarded as rep- 
resenting the old Commonwealth. On December 2, 1861, 
the reorganized Legislature again assembled. The Governor 
recommended a repeal of the stay laws and confiscation of the 
property of secessionists. He congratulated the people that 
they had contributed their full quota, about 6,000 men, to the 
Union army. 

The adversaries of slavery endeavored to obtain the con- 
sent of the restored Legislature to the condition that the 
gradual emancipation clause should become a part of the 
constitution as soon as ratified by the people. If Congress at 
its present session would give its consent and admit the new 
State on the same condition, the people, they declared, could 
be trusted to ratify afterward. 

An election held April 3, 1862, gave, including the sol- 
diers' vote, 28,321 for and 572 against the constitution, no 
returns being received from ten counties.* The vote for 

^ The Formation of West Virginia, p. 96, says 16,981 for and 441 against 
the constitution. The Annual Cyclopaedia for 1862, p. 801, gives the vote 
as 18,862 in favor of, and 514 against, the constitution. Poore's Charters 
and Constitutions, Vol. II. p. 1977, is the authority for the statement in 
the text. 



110 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

gradual emancipation, where an expression was had, was 
almost equal to that given for the constitution, both being 
nearly unanimous. The former received 6,052 for and 610 
against it. How far this informal expression of opinion 
influenced Congress will presently be noticed. 

At an extra session of the Legislature, convoked by Gov- 
ernor Pierpont, an act, in almost the identical language of that 
assenting to the formation of Kentucky, was passed, May 13, 
1862, giving consent to the erection within the jurisdiction of 
Virginia of a new State to include forty-eight named coun- 
ties; the second section of this act provided that Berkeley, 
Jefferson and Frederic counties could be annexed whenever a 
majority of their votes, at an election to be held for that pur- 
pose, should ratify the constitution. The act, together with 
a certified original of the constitution, was to be transmitted 
to their Senators and Representatives in Washington, who 
were requested to use their endeavors to obtain the consent of 
Congress to the admission of West Virginia into the 
Union. 

On June 23, 1862, Mr. Wade, from the Committee on 
Territories, reported to the United States Senate a bill for the 
admission of West Virginia into the Union, and three days 
later requested its consideration. It stipulated, among other 
things, that " the convention thereinafter provided for shall, 
in the constitution to be framed by it, make provision that 
from and after the fourth day of July, 1863, the children of 
all slaves born within the limits of the State shall be free " ; 
it also allotted to the new Commonwealth as many Repre- 
sentatives in Congress as her population would justify under 
the apportionment then existing. 

Charles Sumner observed that the former was the imposi- 
tion of a condition which proposed to recognize the existence 
of slavery during that generation. " Short as life may be," 



VIRGINIA III 

he declared, " it is too long for slavery." By the admission of 
West Virginia a new slave State would be added; he moved, 
therefore, to substitute for this requirement the Jeffersonian 
interdict that " within the limits of said State there shall be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than in 
punishment of crime whereof the party shall be duly con- 
victed." 

Mr. Hale justly remarked that after consenting to the 
admission of so many States with pro-slavery constitutions 
it would be a singular fact if the first that ever applied 
with a provision for prospective emancipation should be 
rejected. 

Senator Collamer believed that if West Virginia was to 
enter on a footing of perfect equality with other members 
of the Union she should, like them, have the right to regulate 
domestic questions, including slavery, in her own way. The 
condition imposed by the bill denied her that right. 

Mr. Wade disliked the proposition as it stood, because 
it was very objectionable to him " to say that a man bom on 
the 4th day of July, 1863, shall be free, and one born the day 
before shall be forever a slave." " I should much prefer," 
he added, " to have it graduated so that all born after the 
adoption of this constitution shall be free, and that all between 
certain ages shall be free at a certain period." At this point 
Sumner's amendment was lost by a vote of 24 to 11. 

Mr. Carlile, of Virginia, who was foremost in organizing 
resistance to secession, had from the beginning assumed the 
appearance of a friend, but, after giving direction to the move- 
ment for separation, acted as an adversary to the new State; 
he opposed all conditions on its admission and expressed a 
preference that it be permitted to enter on the constitution 
submitted by its people. He would never " consent to have 
the organic law of a State framed for its people by the Con- 



112 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

gress of the United States." There were 47,000 voters in 
the counties to be embraced within the proposed State; of 
that number only about 19,000 had voted on the constitution. 
At the last moment he delivered with his usual eloquence a 
strong argument against admission. An amendment which 
he submitted would have the effect certainly to postpone, 
perhaps altogether to defeat, the measure in the Senate. Fail- 
ing to secure its adoption, he urged a postponement till De- 
cember following; this motion, however, was voted down. 

So surprised were his associates at this unexpected opposi- 
tion that they inquired pointedly why these belated argu- 
ments had not been presented to the Committee on Terri- 
tories when the measure was before them. Mr. Wade, its 
chairman, was especially severe in his condemnation of Car- 
lile's extraordinary course, for it was the reasoning of the 
Virginia Senator that had won their support; he had searched 
the precedents and submitted cheerfully to all the labors im- 
posed by the Committee. Now by his opposition he brought 
everything to a stand-still. 

His colleague, Mr, Willey, who had been converted in a 
rather advanced stage of the movement, declared that it was 
not the desire to be free from that part of the Commonwealth 
in rebellion that was responsible for the present attitude of 
western Virginia; the insurrection only precipitated the at- 
tempt to settle a controversy which was older than he. To 
enforce his remarks he added that great numbers of her citi- 
zens had determined to fix their abodes elsewhere unless 
West Virginia became an independent State. During this 
discussion the Senate had before it the constitution framed 
by the convention which met November 26, 1861, in the city 
of Wheeling. 

After a vigorous address by Benjamin F. Wade, who had 
recently investigated the subject, and whose ardor had been 
aroused by a deputation of West Virginians then in Wash- 



VIRGINIA 



"3 



ington, the bill by a vote of 2^ to 17 passed the Senate, 
July 14, 1862.^ 

By Mr. Brown, of Virginia, a similar measure had already 
been introduced into the House on June 25. It was read 
twice and referred to the Committee on Territories,^ When 
called up on July 16 succeeding it was agreed to postpone 
consideration of the bill until the regular session in De- 
cember,^ and on the 9th of that month, when Representative 
Bingham asked that it be put on its passage, discussion of 
the subject was resumed. 

Representative Conway said that if the application of 
West Virginia came in the proper manner he would be happy 
to vote for its admission; he regretted, however, that at 
the beginning of the rebellion a territorial government had 
not been organized there; Congress could then have passed 
an enabling act, and the State could be received in a manner 
to admit of no dispute. The question turned, he declared, 
on whether the State of Virginia, of which a Mr. Pierpont 
was Governor, was the lawful State. This he denied. A 
number of persons without authority met at Wheeling and 
organized a government. This establishment the President 
had recognized; one branch of Congress by admitting its 
Senators had also conceded its legality. These precedents, 
however, should not be binding on the House. Neither mobs 
nor mass-meetings, he asserted, make laws under our sys- 
tem, and such bodies had no authority to appoint Mr. 
Pierpont. 

The President intended, Mr. Conway believed, to form 
similar organizations in all the seceded States. " A policy 
seems about to be inaugurated," he added, " looking to an 
assumption of State powers by a few individuals, wherever 

'Globe, Part III., 2 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 864; Part IV., pp. 2941-2942, 
3034-3039, 3134-3135, 3307-3320. 
' Globe, 2 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 2933. ' Ibid., p. 3397. 



114 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

a military or other encampment can be effected in any of the 
rebellious districts. The utter and flagrant unconstitution- 
ality of this scheme — I may say, its radically revolutionary 
character — ought to expose it to the reprobation of every 
loyal citizen and every member of this House. It aims at an 
utter subversion of our constitutional system. Its effect 
would be to consolidate all the powers of the Government 
in the hands of the Executive. With the admission of this 
new State, the President will have substantially created four 
Senators — two for Virginia and two for West Virginia." 
In referring to an extension of this system he declared that 
the President and a few friends could exercise Federal au- 
thority in all those States. " The true policy of this Govern- 
ment, therefore, with regard to the seceded States, is to hold 
them as common territory wherever and whenever our arms 
are extended over them. This obviates the terrible dangers 
which I have alluded to, and is in harmony with the highest 
considerations of public utility, as well as with sound legal 
principles." ^ 

Mr. Conway directed his criticisms against the President 
because he believed the Executive was first to recognize 
the new government. The action of the Senate was based 
upon this precedent, it being assumed that recognition was 
an Executive function. 

Mr. Brown, who introduced the bill at the preceding 
session, related concisely the essential facts already placed 
before the reader. He reminded Representative Conway 
that, though a State could not commit treason, or any other 
crime, the officials of government could do so; that the legis- 
lative powers, being incapable of annihilation, returned to the 
people; that the spontaneous assembly at Wheeling merely 
organized and proposed a plan by which regular elections 
were to be held to fill vacancies caused by the withdrawal of 
* Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 37-38. 



VIRGINIA 



i'5 



disloyal representatives. A day was fixed, and wherever 
throughout the State loyal citizens chose to hold an election 
they could do so. The body thus elected assumed the legisla- 
tive functions of the people. 

In answer to an inquiry he replied that about five counties 
outside of West Virginia were represented in the Legislature 
which consented to the erection of the new State, and all 
the counties in the State were expressly invited to send rep- 
resentatives to the General Assembly. If they were loyal 
they should have cooperated; if not, they should have no 
voice in either the State Legislature or Congress. He re- 
ferred in his remarks to a telegram which he had that morn- 
ing received from Wheeling. It contained a resolution 
passed by the Assembly asking the House of Representatives 
to approve the bill for the admission of West Virginia, which 
had been favorably acted upon by the Senate at the preceding 
session. 

" It has been asserted," he said in conclusion, " and under- 
stood in some quarters, that the organization of the govern- 
ment at Wheeling was for the purpose of forming a new 
State. I am prepared to say that when the convention 
originally met in Wheeling, although there were a few 
radicals there who wanted to form a new State without rein- 
stating the old State of Virginia, we voted them down, and 
commenced the exercise of our original rights as freemen to 
build up the loyal government of Virginia; and although 
we designed eventually to ask for this separation, and it was 
what we anxiously desired, yet we determined to be a law- 
abiding people, and ask for what we desired through the 
forms of law." ^ 

Representative Colfax in giving the reasons which should 
govern his vote stated that the restored government had 
been recognized by the Senate, by the President as well as 

^ Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 38-39, 41-42. 



ii6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

other executive officers, and that the House, by admitting 
Mr. Segar, elected pursuant to a proclamation of Governor 
Pierpont, had also recognized the reorganized State. Even 
the political party in opposition voted for that member's ad- 
mission. He also remarked that the new State came knock- 
ing at the door for admission with the tiara of freedom on 
her brow.^ 

Mr. Olin, who opposed the bill at the preceding session, 
said : " I shall vote for it now with reluctance. I shall vote 
for it mainly upon the ground that the General Government, 
whether wisely or unwisely I will not undertake to say, has 
encouraged this movement to create a division of the State 
of Virginia." ^ The people of West Virginia, with their ex- 
perience of the evils which slavery brought on them, should 
not have permitted that institution to exist for an hour in 
their new government. For this deficiency, however, the bill 
provided a partial remedy. 

Crittenden observed that it was the party applying for ad- 
mission that gave its consent to a division of the State.^ To 
this objection Representative Blair replied that there were 
counties outside of West Virginia which had assented to dis- 
memberment. Other members, who had hitherto been hos- 
tile, now consented to support the measure from a conviction 
that it would weaken rebellion. 

Representative Dawes said that the primary elections which 
sent delegates to the Wheeling convention discussed not a 
reorganization of the Virginia government, but the formation 
of an independent State in western Virginia. To accomplish 
that, he said, the only way was to restore the government of 
the entire Commonwealth. That government then had two 
things to do : to set up a new State within itself and secondly 

* Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong, pp. 43-45. 
' Ibid., p. 46. 
' Ibid., pp. 46-47. 



VIRGINIA 117 

to give its consent thereto. This suggestion, he understood, 
emanated from Washington.^ 

In reference to the admission, Thaddeus Stevens said : 

I do not desire to be understood as being deluded by the idea that we 
are admitting this State in pursuance of any provisions of the Constitu- 
tion. I find no such provision that justifies it, and the argument in favor 
of the constitutionality of it is one got up by those who either honestly 
entertain, I think, an erroneous opinion, or who desire to justify, by a 
forced construction, an act which they have predetermined to do. 

Now, to say that the Legislature which called this seceding convention 
was not the Legislature of Virginia, is asserting that the Legislature 
chosen by a vast majority of the people of a State is not the Legislature 
of that State. That is a doctrine which I can never assent to. I admit 
that the Legislature were disloyal, but they were still the disloyal and 
traitorous Legislature of the State of Virginia ; and the State, as a mere 
State, was bound by their acts. Not so individuals. They are respon- 
sible to the General Government, and are responsible whether the State 
decrees treason or not. That being the Legislature of Virginia, Governor 
Letcher, elected by a majority of the votes of the people, is the Governor 
of Virginia — a traitor in rebellion, but a traitorous governor of a traitor- 
ous State. Now, then, how has that State ever given its consent to this 
division? A highly respectable but very small number of the citizens of 
Virginia — the people of West Virginia — assembled together, disap- 
proved of the acts of the State of Virginia, and with the utmost self- 
complacency called themselves Virginia. 



I hold that none of the States now in rebellion are entitled to the pro- 
tection of the Constitution, and I am grieved when I hear those high in 
authority sometimes talking of the constitutional difficulties about en- 
forcing measures against this belligerent power, and the next moment 
disregarding every vestige and semblance of the Constitution by acts 
which alone are arbitrary. I hope I do not differ with the Executive in 
the views which I advocate. But I see the Executive one day saying " you 
shall not take the property of rebels to pay the debts which the rebels 
have brought upon the Northern States." Why? Because the Constitu- 
tion is in the way. And the next day I see him appointing a military 
governor of Virginia, a military governor of Tennessee, and some other 
places. Where does he find anything in the Constitution to warrant 
that? 

^ Globe, Part L, 3 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 48. 



ii8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

If he must look there alone for authority, then all these acts are flagrant 
usurpations, deserving the condemnation of the community. He must 
agree with me or else his acts are as absurd as they are unlawful ; for I 
see him here and there ordering elections for members of Congress wher- 
ever he finds a little collection of three or four consecutive plantations 
in the rebel States, in order that men may be sent in here to control the 
proceedings of this Congress, just as we sanctioned the election held by 
a few people at a little watering place at Fortress Monroe, by which we 
have here the very respectable and estimable member from that locality 
with us. It was upon the same principle. 

. . . I say, then, that we may admit West Virginia as a new State, 
not by virtue of any provision of the Constitution, but under our absolute 
power which the laws of war give us in the circumstances in which we 
are placed. I shall vote for this bill upon that theory, and upon that 
alone ; for I will not stultify myself by supposing that we have any war- 
rant in the Constitution for this proceeding. 

The Union, he declared, could never be restored as it was. 
His consent would never be given to restore it with a con- 
stitutional provision protecting slavery. An additional rea- 
son for giving his vote in favor of the bill was that there was 
a provision which would make West Virginia a free State.^ 

" No right of persons, no right of property," said Mr. 
Noell, " no social or domestic affairs, could be regulated or 
controlled by the people of western Virginia, under the cir- 
cumstances in which they were placed, without recognizing 
the ordinance of secession, and acting as a State within the 
Southern Confederacy." ^ This showed both the necessity of 
reorganizing the government of Virginia and the recognition 
by Federal authorities of the establishment so constituted. 

Mr. Segar declared that eleven of the forty-eight counties 
to comprise the new State had not participated in its estab- 
lishment, being represented neither in the reorganized Legis- 
lature nor the Wheeling convention; three others were un- 
represented both in the House of Delegates and the conven- 
tions; ten cast no vote on the constitution and three had in- 

' Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 50-51. 
' Ibid., p. 35- 



VIRGINIA 119 

terests, social and commercial, which bound them up with the 
East. Then, too, the people of West Virginia made a funda- 
mental law recognizing slavery; an anti-slavery constitution 
was to be imposed on them as a condition of admission.* 

An able argument by Representative Bingham, of Ohio, 
who had charge of the bill, concluded the debate on December 
10, 1862, when it passed by 96 yeas to 55 nays.^ 

With the President rested the fate of this important meas- 
ure; if he vetoed it there would, probably, not be found a two 
thirds majority in its support. Many members, as will be 
seen from the preceding abridgment of the debates, yielded 
only a reluctant support. 

On December 23, 1862, Mr. Lincoln sent to his constitu- 
tional advisers the following note : 

Gentlemen of the Cabinet : 

A bill for an act entitled " An act for the admission of the State of 
West Virginia into the Union and for other purposes " has passed the 
House of Representatives and the Senate, and has been duly presented 
to me for my action. 

I respectfully ask of each of you an opinion in writing on the follow- 
ing questions, to wit : 

1st. Is the said act constitutional? 

2d. Is the said act expedient ? * 

To this request six members of the Cabinet responded by 
submitting their written opinions. Three — Seward, Stan- 
ton and Chase — answered both questions in the affirmative. 
Bates, Blair and Welles replied in the negative; the remaining 
place in the Cabinet was vacant owing to the resignation of 
Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, who had been raised 
to the Bench in Indiana. His successor had not yet been 
appointed. 

' Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 54-55. 

*Ibid., p. 59. 

'Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 283. 



120 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Upon the constitutional point Mr. Seward said : " It seems 
to me that the political body which has given consent in this 
case is really and incontestably the State of Virginia. So 
long as the United States do not recognize the secession, de- 
parture, or separation of one of the States, that State must 
be deemed as existing and having a constitutional place within 
the Union, whatever may be at any moment exactly its revo- 
lutionary condition. A State thus situated cannot be deemed 
to be divided into two or more States merely by any revolu- 
tionary proceeding which may have occurred, because there 
cannot be, constitutionally, two or more States of Virginia. 
. . . The newly organized State of Virginia is there- 
fore, at this moment, by the express consent of the United 
States, invested with all the rights of the State of Virginia, 
and charged with all the powers, privileges, and dignity of 
that State. If the United States allow to that organization 
any of these rights, powers, and privileges, it must be allowed 
to possess and enjoy them all. If it be a State competent to 
be represented in Congress and bound to pay taxes, it is a 
State competent to give the required consent of the State to 
the formation and erection of the new State of West Virginia 
within the jurisdiction of Virginia." 

" Upon the question of expediency," he wrote, " I am de- 
termined by two considerations. First. The people of West- 
ern Virginia will be safer from molestation for their loyalty, 
because better able to protect and defend themselves as a new 
and separate State than they would be if left to demoralizing 
uncertainty upon the question whether, in the progress of the 
war, they may not be again reabsorbed in the State of Vir- 
ginia, and subjected to severities as a punishment for their 
present devotion to the Union. The first duty of the United 
States is protection to loyalty wherever it is found. Second. 
I am of opinion that the harmony and peace of the Union 
will be promoted by allowing the new State to be formed and 



VIRGINIA 121 

erected, which will assume jurisdiction over that part of the 
valley of the Ohio which lies on the south side of the Ohio 
River, displacing, in a constitutional and lawful manner, the 
jurisdiction heretofore exercised there by a political power 
concentrated at the head of the James River." ^ 

Mr. Chase, in discussing the constitutional question, said in 
part : " The Madison Papers clearly show that the consent of 
the Legislature of the original State was the only consent re- 
quired to the erection and formation of a new State within its 
jurisdiction. That consent having been given, the consent 
of the new State, if required, is proved by her application for 
admission. . . . The Legislature of Virginia, it may 
be admitted, did not contain many members from the eastern 
counties; it contained, however, representatives from all coun- 
ties whose inhabitants were not either rebels themselves, or 
dominated by greater numbers of rebels. It was the only 
Legislature of the State known to the Union. If its consent 
was not valid, no consent could be. If its consent was not 
valid, the Constitution, as to the people of West Virginia, 
has been so suspended by the rebellion that a most important 
right under it is utterly lost." 

Relative to the question of expediency, he writes : " The 
act is almost universally regarded as of vital importance to 
their welfare by the loyal people most immediately interested, 
and it has received the sanction of large majorities in both 
Houses of Congress. These facts afford strong presumptions 
of expediency. ... It may be said, indeed, that the 
admission of West Virginia will draw after it the necessity 
of admitting other States under the consent of extemporized 
legislatures assuming to act for whole States, though really 
representing no important part of their territory. I think this 
necessity imaginary. There is no such legislature, nor is 
there likely to be. No such legislature, if extemporized, is 
^ Quoted in N. & H., Vol. VI. pp. 300-301. 



122 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

likely to receive the recognition of Congress or the Execu- 
tive." ^ 

Mr. Stanton responded more briefly than either Secretary 
Seward or Secretary Chase, observing, among other things : 
" I have been unable to perceive any point on which the act of 
Congress conflicts with the Constitution. By the erection of the 
new State, the geographical boundary heretofore existing 
between the free and slave States will be broken, and the 
advantage of this upon every point of consideration surpasses 
all objections which have occurred to me on the question of 
expediency. Many prophetic dangers and evils might be 
specified, but it is safe to suppose that those who come after 
us will be as wise as ourselves, and if what we deem evils 
be really such, they will be avoided. The present good is real 
and substantial, the future may safely be left in the care of 
those whose duty and interest may be involved in any possible 
future measures of legislation." ^ 

One or two excerpts from the opinion of Mr. Welles will 
indicate the course of his argument in the negative : " Under 
existing necessities, an organization of the loyal citizens, or of 
a portion of them, has been recognized, and its Senators and 
Representatives admitted to seats in Congress. Yet we can- 
not close our eyes to the fact that the fragment of the State 
which, in the revolutionary tumult, has instituted the new 
organization, is not possessed of the records, archives, 
symbols, traditions, or capital of the Commonwealth. Though 
calling itself the State of Virginia, it does not assume the 
debts and obligations contracted prior to the existing difficul- 
ties. Is this organization, then, really and in point of fact any- 
thing else than a provisional government for the State? It 
is composed almost entirely of those loyal citizens who reside 
beyond the mountains, and within the prescribed limits of the 

* Quoted in N- & H., Vol. VI. pp. 302-303. 

* Ibid., p. 304. 



VIRGINIA 123 

proposed new State. In this revolutionary period, there being 
no contestants, we are compelled to recognize the organization 
as Virginia. Whether that would be the case, and how the 
question would be met and disposed of, were the insurrection 
this day abandoned, need not now be discussed. Were Vir- 
ginia, or those parts of it not included in the proposed new 
State, invaded and held in temporary subjection by a foreign 
enemy instead of the insurgents, the fragment of territory and 
population which should successfully repel the enemy and 
adhere to the Union would doubtless, during such temporary 
subjection, be recognized, and properly recognized, as Vir- 
ginia. When, however, this loyal fragment goes farther, and 
not only declares itself to be Virginia, but proceeds by its 
own act to detach itself permanently and forever from the 
Commonwealth, and to erect itself into a new State within the 
jurisdiction of the State of Virginia, the question arises 
whether this proceeding is regular, legal, right, and, in honest 
good faith, conformable to, and within the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution. . . . Congress may admit new 
States into the Union ; but any attempt to dismember or divide 
a State by any forced or unauthorized assumption would be 
an inexpedient exercise of doubtful power to the injury of 
such State. Were there no question of doubtful constitu- 
tionality in the movement, the time selected for the division of 
the State is most inopportune. It is a period of civil commo- 
tion, when unity and concerted action on the part of all loyal 
citizens and authorities should be directed to a restoration 
of the Union, and all tendency towards disintegration and 
demoralization avoided." ^ 

Mr. Blair, likewise in the negative, added little of impor- 
tance to what Secretary Welles had adduced on that side. 

The first and rather hastily formed opinion of Attorney- 
General Bates has already been given together with an account 
' Quoted in N. & H., Vol. VI. pp. 304-306. 



124 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of the circumstances attending its publication; upon longer 
reflection he did not greatly change the ground of his original 
convictions and in an elaborate discussion still reasoned in the 
negative.^ 

Between these evenly balanced and conflicting opinions of 
his advisers Mr. Lincoln argued as follows : 

The consent of the legislature of Virginia is constitutionally necessary 
to the bill for the admission of West Virginia becoming a law. A body 
claiming to be such legislature has given its consent. We cannot well 
deny that it is such, unless we do so upon the outside knowledge that the 
body was chosen at elections in which a majority of the qualified voters 
of Virginia did not participate. But it is a universal practice in the popu- 
lar elections in all these States to give no legal consideration whatever 
to those who do not choose to vote, as against the effect of the votes of 
those who do choose to vote. Hence it is not the qualified voters, but 
the qualified voters who choose to vote that constitute the political power 
of the State. Much less than to non-voters should any consideration be 
given to those who did not vote in this case, because it is also matter 
of outside knowledge that they were not merely neglectful of their rights 
under and duty to this government, but were also engaged in open rebel- 
lion against it. Doubtless among these non-voters were some Union men 
whose voices were smothered by the more numerous secessionists; but 
we know too little of their number to assign them any appreciable value. 
Can this government stand, if it indulges constitutional constructions by 
which men in open rebellion against it are to be accounted, man for man, 
the equals of those who maintain their loyalty to it? Are they to be 
accounted even better citizens, and more worthy of consideration, than 
those who merely neglect to vote? If so, their treason against the Con- 
stitution enhances their constitutional value. Without braving these ab- 
surd conclusions, we cannot deny that the body which consents to the 
admission of West Virginia is the legislature of Virginia. I do not think 
the plural form of the words " legislatures " and " States " in the phrase 
of the Constitution " without the consent of the legislatures of the States 
concerned," etc., has any reference to the new State concerned. That 
plural form sprang from the contemplation of two or more old States con- 
tributing to form a new one. The idea that the new State was in danger 
of being admitted without its own consent was not provided against, 
because it was not thought of, as I conceive. It is said, the devil takes 
care of his own. Much more should a good spirit — the spirit of the 
Constitution and the Union — take care of its own. I think it cannot do 
less and live. 

* See pp. 105-106 ante. 



VIRGINIA 125 

But is the admission into the Union of West Virginia expedient? This, 
in my general view, is more a question for Congress than for the Execu- 
tive. Still I do not evade it. More than on anything else, it depends on 
whether the admission or rejection of the new State would, under all the 
circumstances, tend the more strongly to the restoration of the national 
authority throughout the Union. That which helps most in this direction 
is the most expedient at this time. Doubtless those in remaining Virginia 
would return to the Union, so to speak, less reluctantly without the divi- 
sion of the old State than with it ; but I think we could not save as much 
in this quarter by rejecting the new State, as we should lose by it in West 
Virginia. We can scarcely dispense with the aid of West Virginia in 
this struggle; much less can we afford to have her against us, in Con- 
gress and in the field. Her brave and good men regard her admission 
into the Union as a matter of life and death. They have been true to the 
Union under very severe trials. We have so acted as to justify their 
hopes, and we cannot fully retain their confidence and cooperation if we 
seem to break faith with them. In fact, they could not do so much for us, 
if they would. Again, the admission of the new State turns that much 
slave soil, to free, and thus is a certain and irrevocable encroachment 
upon the cause of the rebellion. The division of a State is dreaded as a 
precedent. But a measure made expedient by a war is no precedent for 
times of peace. It is said that the admission of West Virginia is seces- 
sion, and tolerated only because it is our secession. Well, if we call it by 
that name, there is still difference enough between secession against the 
Constitution and secession in favor of the Constitution. I believe the 
admission of West Virginia into the Union is expedient.^ 

The bill passed by the House on the loth was approved 
by the President on the 31st of December, 1862; after nam- 
ing the forty-eight counties to constitute the new State the 
act declares, among other things, that since the convention 
framed the constitution for West Virginia its people had 
expressed a wish to change section seven of the eleventh article 
by inserting the following in its place, vis.: " The children of 
slaves born within the limits of this State after the fourth day 
of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be free; and 
that all slaves within the said State who shall, at the time 
aforesaid, be under the age of ten years, shall be free when 
they arrive at the age of twenty-one years ; and all slaves over 
ten and under twenty-one years, shall be free when they arrive 
* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 285-287. 



126 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave shall be permitted 
to come into the State for permanent residence therein." ^ 

The constitution thus amended was unanimously ratified by 
the convention, which on a summons of the commissioners 
reassembled February i8, 1863, and also by the people, to 
whom it was submitted at an election held on May 26 follow- 
ing.^ President Lincoln on April 20 issued a proclamation 
declaring that the prescribed conditions having been com- 
plied with, the constitution would go into force in sixty days 
from that date; the formation of the new State was com- 
plete and it became a member of the Union on the 20th of 
June, 1863.^ 

Daniel Webster, in an address delivered thirteen years be- 
fore, at the laying of the corner-stone of an addition to the 
Federal Capitol, had asked : " And ye men of Western Vir- 
ginia, . . . what benefit do you propose to yourself by 
disunion? If you 'secede,' what do you 'secede' from, and 
what do you ' accede ' to ? Do you look for the current of 
the Ohio to change, and to bring you and your commerce to 
the tide-waters of the eastern rivers? What man in his 
senses can suppose that you would remain part and parcel of 
Virginia a month after Virginia should have ceased to be 
part and parcel of the Union? " ^ The remarkable prediction 
of the great orator was fulfilled; his inspired vision had 
pierced the future. The Old Dominion had separated forever 
along the line of the Alleghanies. 

Before relating the subsequent history of the restored 
government, it is proper to notice a few important events in 
the early career of the new Commonwealth. On January 
31, 1863, an act passed the General Assembly of Virginia 
giving consent to the transfer of Berkeley County to the 

' The Formation of West Virginia, p. 152. 

^ Ibid., pp. 192-193. 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln. Vol. IL p. 326. 

* Webster's Works, Vol. H. pp. 607-608. 



VIRGINIA 127 

State of West Virginia. The preamble of this act afifirms 
that its people desired to be annexed to the proposed State. 
The question of transfer, however, was to be decided by a 
majority of voters at an election to be held on the fourth 
Thursday of May. If, however, the polls could not be safely 
opened on that day, the Governor was empowered to post- 
pone the election by proclamation. The commissioners who 
superintended the polling were to certify the results to the 
Executive. On February 4 succeeding another act made it 
lawful for voters in certain districts including twenty-three 
counties to declare, at a general election to be held on the 
fourth Thursday of May, whether these specified counties 
should be annexed to West Virginia. The consent of the 
Legislature of that State was, of course, made a condition of 
the transfer, after which the jurisdiction of Virginia over such 
counties was to cease. 

West Virginia statutes of August 5 and November 2, 1863, 
in words, admit Berkeley and Jefferson counties, and they 
have ever since been under her jurisdiction. When admitted 
into the Union it was with a provision in her constitution 
that she might acquire additional territory; therefore Con- 
gress gave its consent in advance and it was not afterwards 
withdrawn. In brief, West Virginia accepted the transfer 
and it was authorized by the General Assembly of the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia.^ 

* By a joint resolution, approved March 10, 1866, Congress agreed that 
both counties formed a part of West Virginia. The parent State, how- 
■ever, by an act of December 5, 1865, had already repealed both the stat- 
utes of January 31 and February 4, 1863, as well as section tzvo of the act 
of May 13, 1862; and on December 11, 1866, a bill in equity was filed in 
the Supreme Court of the United States in which it was contended that 
it was not the intention of that State to consent to the annexation of 
Berkeley and Jefferson counties except upon the performance of certain 
conditions; the state of the county on election day was such as not to 
permit the opening of all the polls in Berkeley and Jefferson, nor indeed 
at any considerable part of the usual election places. The voters did not 



128 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

State ojfificers were elected on May 28, when the following 
unconditional Union candidates, receiving a vote of about 
30,000, were chosen without opposition : Arthur I. Boreman, 
Governor; J. E. Boyers, Secretary of State; Campbell Tarr, 
Treasurer; Samuel Crane, Auditor; A. B. Caldwell, Attorney- 
General; also three judges of a court of appeals. 

The inauguration of the new State, which was marked by 
imposing ceremonies, took place at Wheeling, the capital, on 
June 20, 1863. Mr. Pierpont, the retiring executive of reor- 
ganized Virginia, briefly addressed the assembled citizens 
and urged them not to forsake the flag; he then introduced 
his successor, whom he pronounced " true as steel." Gov- 
ernor Boreman in his short speech said that the only terms of 
peace were that the rebels should lay down their arms and 
submit to the regularly constituted authority of the United 
States. 

The Legislature of West Virginia convened on the same 
day. Waitman T. Willey and P. G. Van Winkle were elected 
United States Senators.* In his first message Governor Bore- 
man recommended to the General Assembly the immediate 
passage of laws effectually to extirpate slavery, and also the 
enactment of a law that no man should be permitted to vote or 
to hold office until he had taken the oath of allegiance. 

have adequate notice. In short, a great majority of them were then and 
now, December, 1866, opposed to annexation. Other irregularities are 
alleged in the complaint of Virginia. A decision, however, has been ren- 
dered by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the new 
Commonwealth. [See Virginia vs. West Virginia, 11 Wall., p. 39; also 
Transcripts of Records, Supreme Court U. S., Vol. 152, December Term, 
1870.] 

* Notwithstanding the new State had been organized by a law which 
passed both Houses of Congress, and was approved by the President, Mr. 
Davis, of Kentucky, when the members-elect presented themselves before 
the Senate, opposed their admission on the ground that there was legally 
and constitutionally no such State in existence as West Virginia. On his 
motion to administer the customary oath thirty-six Senators voted in the 
affirmative, five in the negative. [Globe, i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1-3.] 



VIRGINIA 129 

In the Presidential election of 1864, the first held since the 
adoption of the Constitution in which any State deliberately 
neglected to appoint electors, 33,680 votes were polled in 
West Virginia; of this number the Union ticket received 23,- 
223 and the McClellan electors 10,457.^ Elections had also 
been held in Louisiana and Tennessee by authority of the 
governments established there under Mr. Lincoln's plan of re- 
construction ; the Republican majority in Congress, however, 
denied the validity of the organizations in the two States last 
named and refused to count the votes which they presented. 
This question will be fully considered when we come to trace 
the development of the Congressional plan. At the regular 
State election Governor Boreman was chosen without opposi- 
tion, receiving 19,098 votes. With the subsequent history of 
the new Commonwealth the subject of reconstruction is not 
much concerned. 

By the formation of an independent Commonwealth the 
counties beyond the Alleghanies were withdrawn from the 
jurisdiction of the restored government, which after the in- 
augural ceremonies at Wheeling selected for its capital the city 
of Alexandria, where it continued till May 25, 1865, to exer- 
cise its functions in those parts of the Old Dominion within 
the lines of the Union army. A State government was 
promptly organized by the election of a legislature and of ex- 
ecutive officers. In this establishment the loyal eastern counties 
participated. Mr. Pierpont was elected Governor for the term 
of three years beginning January i, 1864. A Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, a Secretary of State, a Treasurer, an Auditor, an 
Adjutant-General and an Attorney-General were also 
chosen. 

The Governor in his message to the Assembly mentioned 
slavery as doomed, and recommended the calling of a con- 

* A History o£ Presidential Elections, Stanwood, pp. 246-247. Edition 
of 1884. 



130 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

vention so to amend the State constitution as to abolish the 
institution forever. In compliance with this suggestion the 
Legislature, on December 21, 1863, passed an act directing a 
convention to be held at Alexandria on the 13th of February 
succeeding to amend the constitution and prohibit slavery in 
the counties of Accomac, Northampton, Princess Ann, Eliza- 
beth City and York (including the cities of Norfolk and 
Portsmouth). These with Berkeley County had been excepted 
from the operation of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

None but loyal citizens who had not assisted the 
insurgents since January i, 1863, were allowed to take part, 
and those whose right to vote might be challenged were 
required to swear support of the Constitution and to declare 
that they had not in any way given aid or comfort to the 
enemy. 

The convention, consisting of sixteen members, assembled 
in the new capital at the appointed time and remained in 
session till April 11 following, when a constitution was 
adopted.^ Various amendments, relating chiefly to the regu- 
lation of the elective franchise and to the abolition of slavery, 
were discussed and agreed upon. The work of this miniature 
convention was ordered to be proclaimed without a submission 
to the people. It was not, however, recognized by Congress, 
though the civil government which authorized its formation 
was permitted to continue under it, provisionally only, and in 
all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United 
States at any time to abolish, modify, or supersede. 

Though the bill for the admission of West Virginia passed 
both Houses, yet Congress was by no means unanimous in 
giving its consent to that measure. In the debates, of which a 
synopsis has been given, the hostility of Thaddeus Stevens 
and other influential members is scarcely concealed. This 
opposition to executive policy slowly gathered strength, and 
^ Ann, Cycl., 1864, p. 809. 



VIRGINIA 131 

by 1863 had become formidable enough to defeat the ad- 
mission of Representatives from the Alexandria government. 
The Senators, however, remained, Lemuel J. Bowden till his 
death, January 2, 1864, when his successor was refused ad- 
mission, and John S. Carlile till the expiration of his term in 
1865. 

On the assembling of the 38th Congress, which commenced 
its first session December 7, 1863, Joseph E. Segar, Lucius H. 
Chandler and Benjamin M. Kitchen appeared as Representa- 
tives from Virginia. On May 17 succeeding Mr. Dawes from 
the Committee of Elections reported a resolution to the effect 
that Joseph E. Segar, from the First District of Virginia, was 
not entitled to a seat in that Congress. The case of Mr. 
Chandler, regarded as precisely similar, was considered at 
the same time. 

The district which Mr. Segar claimed to represent was com- 
posed of twenty counties ; of these, Chairman Dawes asserted, 
only four participated in the election. Polling places were not 
opened in any other part of the district, the Confederate au- 
thorities being in possession of the remaining counties. As 
there could be no free exercise of the franchise in this situ- 
ation Mr. Segar, it was contended, was not properly chosen, 
and, therefore, was not entitled to a seat. The vote cast, 
though not accurately ascertained, was estimated at 1,677, of 
which the claimant received 1,300. Because of his loyalty and 
the sacrifices he had made, the Committee regretted the 
necessity of deciding against him. 

Mr. Segar, speaking in his own behalf, reminded the House 
that in a preceding election, when he received 559 out of 
1,018 votes polled in three counties, he was admitted after a 
delay of seven or eight weeks; but when he was sent by a 
larger constituency and came as the choice of four counties 
he was informed that he had no right to a seat, and some of his 
colleasfues who favored his admission in 1862 voted to ex- 



132 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

elude him. The Committee's report, he asserted, admitted the 
existence of such a State as Virginia. He asked Chairman 
Dawes a rather embarrassing question when he inquired 
how a State could have two Senators and no Representative 
in Congress. In conclusion he pronounced restored State 
organization and gradual accretion to be the best method of 
reconstruction. 

Concerning the title of Mr. Chandler, from the Second Con- 
gressional District, Chairman Dawes stated that of the 779 
votes polled in the election 778 were cast for the claimant. 
For the same reason as in the case of Mr. Segar only a small 
part of that District was free to participate in the election, 
and nearly all the votes were polled in the city of Norfolk. 
The ^committee reported against his admission on the same 
ground taken in Mr. Segar's case. 

Chandler, who was permitted to state his case to the House, 
cited a resolution introduced by his former school-mate, Owen 
Lovejoy, the well-known abolitionist, authorizing the names 
of the three Virginia claimants to be enrolled as Representa- 
tives. That resolution, however, was tabled and their cre- 
dentials referred to the Committee of Elections. 

In i860 the Union vote in his District was only 6,712; 
of that number 2,900, he said, were in Norfolk and Ports- 
mouth; the latter city had cast more votes against secession 
than the remainder of his District. Great numbers of loyal 
men, however, left there at the beginning of the war. Electors 
being under no obligation to vote may allow an election to go 
by default when one citizen could return a member to Con- 
gress. Territorially restored Virginia was larger than Dela- 
ware and possessed twice the area of Rhode Island. 

The case of Benjamin M. Kitchen, on which the Com- 
mittee had previously made an adverse report, differed from 
those of the other two claimants in that he had received 
nearly all of his vote in Berkeley County, which possessed a 



VIRGINIA 133 

sort of wanderinpf character, for it was somewhat uncer- 
tain whether it was under the jurisdiction of the new or 
the old State. What action was taken on the Committee's 
report does not appear, but it may be inferred from a facetious 
remark of one member who observed that, Hke Segar and 
Chandler, Kitchen had been privileged to retire to private life. 
The two former were refused admission by the decided vote 
of 94 to 23. 

Besides endeavoring to win back the wavering, Governor 
Pierpont was occupied in taking measures for the relief of 
the distressed. In the vicinity of Norfolk and Portsmouth 
there was a large number of destitute persons whose natural 
supporters were still following the declining fortunes of the 
Confederacy or had been killed in its service. While it was 
universally agreed that their necessities should be relieved, 
the military and civil authorities were in conflict as to the 
mode of providing for them. The President in his efforts to 
establish amicable relations between the officers of the army 
and those of the State invoked the assistance of the Governor. 
As the restored Commonwealth could not be consistently 
recognized while its capital was in a state of blockade the 
President by proclamation, September 24, 1863, declared that 
the interdiction of trade with the port of Alexandria had 
ceased. 

General Butler with headquarters at Fortress Monroe took 
command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina 
November 2, 1863. His predecessors, he asserted, had en- 
deavored to recruit a regiment of Virginians; but after several 
months of energetic trial their efforts were abandoned. As 
eastern Virginia claimed to be a loyal and fully organized 
State, Butler renewed the attempt, whereupon Governor Pier- 
pont protested vigorously. One and a half companies were all 
the recruits that the Commonwealth would furnish, and these, 
Butler asserts, were employed to defend lighthouses and 



134 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

protect Union Inhabitants from outrages at the hands of their 
disloyal neighbors.^ This experience, it may be supposed, did 
not tend to raise the Alexandria government in the esteem of 
the Department Commander. We find accordingly that differ- 
ences soon sprang up between the civil and military authorities. 
An attempt to regulate the liquor traffic in Norfolk and vi- 
cinity was the occasion of an open rupture. Civil officers 
continued to collect the payments imposed by law on those 
engaged in the business; the military power, to keep the traffic 
under better control, undertook to give to a few firms a 
monopoly of the importation. In this situation many small 
retailers refused to pay their licenses and were indicted in 
the local courts. To foil this purpose, General Shepley issued, 
June 22, 1864, an order providing that " on the day of the 
ensuing municipal election in the city of Norfolk a poll will 
be opened at the several places of voting, and separate ballot- 
boxes will be kept open during the hours of voting, in which 
voters may deposit their ballots, ' yes ' or ' no,' upon the fol- 
lowing question: Those in favor of continuing the present 
form of municipal government during the existence of mili- 
tary occupation will vote ' yes.' Those opposed to it will 
vote * no.' " 

Governor Pierpont resented this action and promptly issued 
a proclamation protesting against it as a revolutionary pro- 
ceeding in violation of the Federal Constitution, adding, " No 
loyal citizen, therefore, is expected to vote on the proposed 
question." In a vigorous pamphlet discussing the " abuses of 
military power " he repeated his criticism. 

Butler at this point took up the cudgels for his subordinate 
and in a general order, dated June 30, 1864, discussed the in- 
cident at some length. Pierpont was alluded to as " a person 
who calls himself Governor," and as one " pretending to be the 
head of the restored government of Virginia, which govern- 
' Butler's Book, p. 618. 



VIRGINIA 



'35 



ment is unrecognized by the Congress, laws, and Constitution 
of the United States." The order further recited that as the 
loyal citizens of Norfolk had voted against the further trial of 
the experiment of municipal government " therefore it is or- 
dered that all attempts to exercise civil office and power, 
under any supposed city election, within the city of Nor- 
folk and its environs, must cease, and the persons pretending 
to be elected to civil offices at the late election, and those here- 
tofore elected to municipal offices since the rebellion, must 
no longer attempt to exercise such functions; and upon any 
pretense or attempt so to do, the military commandant at 
Norfolk will see to it that persons so acting are stayed and 
quieted." 

A memorial to Mr. Lincoln enlisted his sympathy and 
secured for Pierpont the assistance of Attorney-General Bates, 
who on July ii wrote the President a long official letter 
setting forth his sense of the serious military encroachment by 
General Butler upon civil law and the authority of Mr. Pier- 
pont as Governor of Virginia. The Department Commander 
replied in a communication of forty pages in sharp criticism 
of the Alexandria government, which he characterized as a 
" useless, expensive, and inefficient thing, unrecognized by 
Congress, unknown to the Constitution of the United States, 
and of such character that there is no command in the 
Decalogue against worshiping it, being the likeness of nothing 
in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters under 
the earth." 

The Attorney-General, who was accused of a design to 
create a conflict between the civil and the military power, also 
came in for a share of rather violent criticism. In this alter- 
cation each party accused the other of being assisted by only 
secessionists and traitors.^ 

It was relative to this controversy that Mr. Lincoln, Decem- 

* N. & H., Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX. pp. 439-442. 



136 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ber 21, 1864, addressed to General Butler the following 
communication : 

On the 9th of August last, I began to write you a letter, the enclosed 
being a copy of so much as I then wrote. So far as it goes it embraces 
the views I then entertained and still entertain. 

A little relaxation of the complaints made to me on the subject, occur- 
ring about that time, the letter was not finished and sent. I now learn, 
correctly I suppose, that you have ordered an election, similar to the one 
mentioned, to take place on the eastern shore of Virginia. Let this be 
suspended at least until conference with me and obtaining my approval. 
[Inclosure.] 

Executive Mansion, Washington, August 9, 1864. 

Major-General Butler: 

Your paper of the about Norfolk matters, is received, as also was 

your other, on the same general subject, dated, I believe, some time in 
February last. This subject has caused considerable trouble, forcing me 
to give a good deal of time and reflection to it. I regret that crimination 
and recrimination are mingled in it. I surely need not to assure you that 
I have no doubt of your loyalty and devoted patriotism ; and I must tell 
you that I have no less confidence in those of Governor Pierpont and the 
Attorney-General. The former — at first as the loyal governor of all Vir- 
ginia, including that which is now West Virginia, in organizing and fur- 
nishing troops, and in all other proper matters — was as earnest, honest, 
and efficient to the extent of his means as any other loyal governor. 

The inauguration of West Virginia as a new State left to him, as he 
assumed, the remainder of the old State; and the insignificance of the 
parts which are outside of the rebel lines, and consequently within his 
reach, certainly gives a somewhat farcical air to his dominion, and I sup- 
pose he, as well as I, has considered that it can be useful for little else 
than as a nucleus to add to. The Attorney-General needs only to be 
known to be relieved from all question as to loyalty and thorough devo- 
tion to the national cause, constantly restraining as he does my tendency 
to clemency for rebels and rebel sympathizers. But he is the law-officer 
of the Government, and a believer in the virtue of adhering to law. 

Coming to the question itself, the military occupancy of Norfolk is a ne- 
cessity with us. If you, as department commander, find the cleansing of 
the city necessary to prevent pestilence in your army; street-lights and a 
fire department necessary to prevent assassinations and incendiarism 
among your men and stores ; wharfage necessary to land and ship men 
and supplies ; a large pauperism, badly conducted at a needlessly large 
expense to the government ; and find that all these things, or any of them, 



VIRGINIA 137 

are not reasonably well attended to by the civil government, you rightfully 
may and must take them into your own hands. But you should do so on 
your own avowed judgment of a military necessity, and not seem to ad- 
mit that there is no such necessity by taking a vote of the people on the 
question. 

Nothing justifies the suspending of the civil by the military authority 
but military necessity ; and of the existence of that necessity, the military 
commander, and not a popular vote, is to decide. And whatever is not 
within such necessity should be left undisturbed. 

In your paper of February you fairly notified me that you contemplated 
taking a popular vote, and, if fault there be, it was my fault that I did not 
object then, which I probably should have done had I studied the subject 
as closely as I have since done. I now think you would better place 
whatever you feel is necessary to be done on this distinct ground of mili- 
tary necessity, openly discarding all reliance for what you do on any elec- 
tion. I also think you should so keep accounts as to show every item of 
money received and how expended. 

The course here indicated does not touch the case when the military 
commander, finding no friendly civil government existing, may, under 
sanction or direction of the President, give assistance to the people to 
inaugurate one.^ 

On the same general subject the President one week later 
wrote General Butler this brief note: 

I think you will find that the provost-marshal on the eastern shore 
has, as by your authority, issued an order, not for a meeting, but 
for an election. The order, printed in due form, was shown to me, 
but as I did not retain it, I cannot give you a copy. If the people, on 
their own motion, wish to hold a peaceful meeting, I suppose you 
need not hinder them.' 

It has elsewhere been observed that a Legislature represent- 
ing what remained of the restored government was chosen 
at the time of Mr. Pierpont's election. This body, however, 
was but the merest shadow of the Assembly of that once 
proud Commonwealth. Seven Delegates responded to the 
roll call when the House convened in December, 1863. They 
adjourned from day to day and on the 9th of that month or- 
ganized with eight members in the popular branch. Precisely 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 619-621. 
' Ibid., p. 623. 



138 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

how many Senators composed the upper House does not appear 
in any notice of their proceedings accessible to the writer; the 
aggregate number in both chambers, however, is said not to 
have exceeded 16.^ This estimate is probably correct; for in 
the election, February 4, 1864, of a Secretary of State and a 
Treasurer the total vote on joint ballot was only 14.^ 

It is probable that neither Mr. Lincoln nor Governor Pier- 
pont regarded this organization as anything more than a 
nucleus around which the loyal elements might rally. Both 
Congress and the military authorities, however, treated it 
with scant courtesy. It is not matter of surprise, therefore, 
that memorials were presented to the United States Senate 
petitioning for the substitution of a military for this feeble 
civil government. To offset this movement remonstrances 
from citizens of Alexandria and from citizens of Loudon 
County were offered, January 17, 1865, by Senator Willey, 
of West Virginia. All the memorials of both classes were 
referred to the Committee on Territories. 

By Mr. Willey credentials of Hon. Joseph Segar, Senator- 
elect from Virginia, were presented, February 17, 1865, to 
supply the vacancy caused by the death of Lemuel J. Bowden. 
Mr. Willey moved that the credentials be read and placed on 
the files, and that the oath of office be administered to Mr. 
Segar. The credentials were read and immediately after 
Mr. Sumner moved that the papers be referred to the Com- 
mittee on the Judiciary. Senator Willey opposed the refer- 
ence. The credentials, he believed, were proper on their face; 
they came to the Senate in due form under the seal of the 
State of Virginia. Mr, Segar was the accredited successor 
of Mr. Bowden, who died while a member of Congress. If 
Mr. Bowden was entitled to a seat his successor was like- 
wise entitled if his credentials were regular and correct. 

'Why The Solid South? p. 222. 
^Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 810. 



VIRGINIA 139 

Mr. Cowan also opposed the reference because he did not 
think it wise to abandon the poHcy hitherto pursued in deal- 
ing with loyal minorities in the rebellious States. He would 
be sorry, he said, if these States were repulsed when they were 
desirous to do all they could to achieve the very end for which 
the present tremendous struggle was taking place. When Mr. 
Bowden came to take his seat no such objection was made. 
A question by Senator Hale developed the fact, however, 
that Mr. Bowden presented himself before the vote was taken 
on the admission of West Virginia. 

Trumbull believed that a reference of the credentials, just as 
in the Arkansas case, would bring up the question. Senator 
Howard, who favored a reference, thought that the entire 
question of the right of Virginia to be represented in Congress 
should be gone into. He would thank the committee for a 
concise account of all the proceedings connected with the 
election of Mr. Segar and his colleague. He asked whether 
a State like Virginia, in armed rebellion, could have Senators 
on that floor. 

Mr. Saulsbury pointed out the change that had come over 
the judgment of the Senate. When Messrs. Willey and 
Carlile appeared there was, he said, but a corporal's guard who 
opposed their right to seats, because Virginia was in rebellion, 
and it was then held by the minority that Senators should rep- 
resent the sovereignty of their States. Those who were 
then most zealous for the admission of the gentlemen claiming 
to represent Virginia had become most vehement in their 
opposition to the admission of Mr. Segar. 

Senator McDougall believed that to refer the proposition to 
the committee would be to bury it, and no resurrection, he 
said, had been proclaimed for any such thing. He had his 
impressions and was as well prepared to discuss the question 
then as at any time. Virginia, according to his understand- 
ing of the philosophy of the Constitution, was a State of the 



140 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Union. He believed the Senator-elect, by reason of his cre- 
dentials, could take the oath, though that was not conclusive 
of his right to a seat in the Senate. 

Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, believed that Congress 
because of its action for three years was bound to recognize 
the existence of both the Governor and Legislature of Vir- 
ginia. He was disposed, however, to support the motion of his 
colleague, Charles Sumner, as well as the amendment thereto 
which authorized the committee to inquire into the election, 
returns and qualifications in the case of the claimant. Cer- 
tain parts of Virginia, exempted by the President's proclama- 
tion, were not in rebellion. Every square mile additional 
over which Federal authority was restored came by the terms 
of that proclamation into the same condition. 

Mr. Willey asserted that the Legislature sneerlngly referred 
to as " the Common Council of Alexandria " represented 
216,000 loyal people. He believed that county after county, 
as fast as they were relieved from the power of the rebellion, 
would come to the support of the loyal nucleus at Alexandria. 
It would place the Senate, he said, in a singular position to 
repulse the claimant while his State was represented by 
another Senator [Carlile]. 

Senator Sherman stated that Mr. Segar's credentials pur- 
ported to show that he had been elected a member of the Senate 
on the 8th of December and that they bore date of December 
12, 1864. Therefore he had slept for sixty or seventy days 
on his right to a seat which would, at any rate, expire on 
the 4th of March. The succeeding Congress, he said, would 
have ample time to decide the question, for, no doubt, at that 
time a gentleman claiming to be a Senator from Virginia 
would present himself. Then it could be deliberately de- 
termined. His motion to lay the credentials on the table 
prevailed by a vote of 29 to 13.^ When this action was taken 
Carlile was among the eight absentees. 

* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 845-849. 



VIRGINIA 141 

Pursuani to a proclamation of the President the Senate 
assembled at noon of March 4 in executive session. Five 
days later the question of admitting Senators from Virginia 
came again before the Senate on presentation by Mr. Doolittle 
of the credentials of Hon. John C. Underwood as Senator- 
elect from that State for six years from the 4th of March. 
His credentials were read and after some discussion it was 
agreed to postpone their consideration as well as those of Mr. 
Segar until the following session. Henderson and Doolittle 
spoke in favor of the early recognition by Congress of the 
local governments in those States which had been brought 
partly under Federal power. The account of Virginian affairs 
will be resumed in the final chapter. 



V 

ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 

THE efforts of Union minorities in Tennessee, in 
Louisiana and in Arkansas to establish governments 
in harmony with the Constitution and laws of the 
United States, and the agency of President Lincoln in effect- 
ing that result, have been somewhat particularly described in 
the preceding pages. The principal events which marked the 
progress of secession in those States, the military successes 
which brought Federal authorities to consider the restoration 
of loyal governments within their borders, and the operation 
of those causes which ultimately overthrew rebellion have been 
more rapidly sketched. To trace the successive steps which 
led to the emancipation of slaves in the seceding States a 
somewhat more ample narrative will be required. This sub- 
ject is not only of intrinsic interest but its culmination in the 
proclamation of September 22, 1862, marks the introduction 
into the President's plan of restoration of an element hitherto 
left out of account. 

In December, 1859, when John Brown, for his rash though 
courageous attempt to liberate slaves, was hanged by the 
authorities of Virginia a great majority of even Northern 
people looked on with indifference or with approval. The 
inhabitants of the free States, however, were rather law- 
abiding than pitiless and came in time to revere the memory 
of that stern old Puritan. Ideas in those times matured with 
amazing rapidity, and fourteen months had scarcely elapsed 
when James B. McKean, a Representative from New York, 
142 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 143 

introduced into Congress, three days before the Confederate 
government was organized, the following resolution : . 

Whereas the " Gulf States " have assumed to secede from the Union, 
and it is deemed important to prevent the " border slave States " from 
following their example; and virhereas it is believed that those who are 
inflexibly opposed to any measure of compromise or concession that in- 
volves, or may involve, a sacrifice of principle or the extension of slavery, 
would nevertheless cheerfully concur in any lawful measure for the eman- 
cipation of slaves : Therefore, 

Resolved, That the select committee of five be instructed to inquire 
whether, by the consent of the people, or of the State governments, or by 
compensating the slaveholders, it be practicable for the General Govern- 
ment to procure the emancipation of the slaves in some, or all, of the 
" border States " ; and if so, to report a bill for that purpose.* 

Mr. Burnett, of Kentucky, desiring to discuss the proposi- 
tion, it was laid on the table and received no further considera- 
tion. Whether Mr. Lincoln had much reflected upon the 
principle of this resolution or the reasoning in its preamble, 
he had not become on March 4 a convert to its essential idea, 
for in his inaugural address he was content, in expressing his 
sentiments on the institution of slavery, to re-afifirm a dec- 
laration which he had formerly made. " I have no purpose," 
said he, " directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institu- 
tion of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have 
no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." ^ 
Even if the occasion had not demanded the language of con- 
ciliation we might easily credit this solemn assurance. In- 
deed, for an entire year after this announcement he refrained 
in his public utterances from taking any attitude hostile to the 
continuance of slavery. The influences which forced him to 
adopt other opinions may be briefly related. 

On May 22, 1861, General Butler arrived at Fortress 
Monroe and at once took command of the Department of Vir- 
ginia; next day he sent a reconnoitering party to Hampton, 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 209. 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. i. 



144 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and in the terror and confusion occasioned by the presence 
of Yankee soldiers three slaves of Colonel Mallory, a 
Confederate officer, effected their escape ; during the afternoon 
they remained in concealment and at night reached the Union 
pickets. The following morning they were brought before 
the Federal commander, whom they informed of their master's 
purpose to employ them in military operations in North Caro- 
lina. On the next day Major John B. Cary, also of the Con- 
federate army, and a former delegate with Butler in the 
Baltimore Convention, came to the fort with a flag of truce, 
and as a representative of Colonel Mallory demanded the 
surrender of these runaways pursuant to the provisions of the 
Federal Constitution under which the Union commander 
claimed to act. With characteristic readiness came the reply 
that the Fugitive Slave Law could not be invoked in this 
case; Virginia assumed to be a foreign State and she must 
count it among the disadvantages of her position if, so far at 
least, she was taken at her word. These negroes further 
informed General Butler or his officers that if they were not 
returned others would come next day. On the 26th eight 
slaves were before him awaiting an audience; one squad of 
forty-seven came early on the 27th and another lot of a dozen 
arrived during the same day. Then they came by twenties, 
thirties and forties both to Fortress Monroe and Newport 
News.* 

Thus arose an important question on which the Government 
had yet developed no policy. As the acts for the rendition of 
fugitive slaves were not repealed till June, 1864, the views of 
individual commanders temporarily prevailed. Without prece- 
dent or instructions General McDowell by an order entirely 
excluded them from his lines. Caprice, too, entered into a 
settlement of the problem, and even a whimsical solution 
was sometimes attempted. A felicitous invention for deter- 
* Addresses and Papers of Edward L. Pierce, pp. 20-25. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 145 

mining these controversies between master and bondman is 
ascribed to the colonel of a Massachusetts regiment. Both 
the claimant and the claimed were put outside his tent for a 
trial of speed; the negro, proving the fleeter, was never heard 
of again, ^ An institution which had practically determined 
both the foreign and domestic policy of the United States 
for an entire generation was suddenly become the sport of a 
subordinate officer of volunteers! The wise should have 
heeded these signs. 

While the Federal commander in Virginia was exchanging 
arguments with Confederate officers, General McClellan at his 
headquarters in Cincinnati was considering a proclamation 
which on May 26 he issued to the Union men of western 
Virginia. This document, among other things, says : " All 
your rights shall be religiously respected, notwithstanding 
all that has been said by the traitors to induce you to believe 
our advent among you will be signalized by an interference 
with your slaves. Understand one thing clearly : not only will 
we abstain from all such interference, but we will, on the con- 
trary, zvith an iron hand crush any attempt at insurrection on 
their part." ^ 

Scarcely less explicit in its announcement concerning 
slavery was General Patterson's proclamation of June 3, 1861, 
to troops of the Department of Pennsylvania. " You must 
bear in mind," says its concluding paragraph, that " you are 
going for the good of the whole country, and that, while it is 
your duty to punish sedition, you must protect the loyal, 
and, should the occasion offer, at once suppress servile 
insurrection." * 

Butler's interview with Major Gary had been promptly 
communicated to the War Department, whose chief, Mr. 

' Addresses and Papers of E. L. Pierce, p. 26. 
' McPherson's Pol. Hist. p. 244. 
» Ibid. 



146 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Cameron, expressed in his reply of May 30 approval of the 
General's action. The Secretary, however, endeavored to dis- 
tinguish between interference with slave property and the 
surrender of negroes that came voluntarily within Federal 
lines. The commander was further directed to " employ such 
persons in the services to which they may be best adapted, 
keeping an account of the labor by them performed, of the 
value of it, and the expenses of their maintenance," ^ the ques- 
tion of their final disposition to be reserved for future 
determination. 

In defence of his attitude toward masters of fugitives who 
had been employed in the batteries or on the fortifications of 
the enemy, international law supplied General Butler with an 
analogy that he skillfully applied to the novel conditions 
which had arisen. Articles of assistance in military opera- 
tions cannot in time of war be imported by neutrals into an 
enemy's country, and the attempt to introduce such goods 
renders them liable to seizure as lawful prize. It did not 
greatly embarrass this versatile lawyer that the term contra- 
band applies exclusively to relations between a belligerent and 
a neutral, or that the decision of a prize court might be neces- 
sary to determine whether a particular article had been so des- 
ignated. No doubt he believed firmly in the doctrine that the 
wants of war are contraband of war. In his correspondence 
with General Scott he had observed that " as a military ques- 
tion, it would seem to be a measure of necessity " to deprive 
disloyal masters of the services of their slaves, and this, on the 
pretext that they were contraband of war, he proceeded to do 
by refusing to surrender any negroes coming inside his lines. ^ 
This method of settling the difficulty was what Secretary 
Cameron had approved. But this phase presented the ques- 
tion in its extreme simplicity. A refusal to return the slaves 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 244. 
^ Ibid., p. 245- 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 147 

of Confederate officers or of Confederate sympathizers was 
one thing; similar treatment of loyal slaveholders would not 
be so readily overlooked by authority. Though such cases 
were more likely to occur in Maryland, Kentucky or Missouri, 
that fact did not prevent the subject from assuming very great 
importance even in Virginia. Whole families escaped from 
their masters, and General Butler soon had on his hands 
negroes from three months to almost fourscore years of age. 

Attorney-General Bates, writing July 22,, 1861, to United 
States Marshal J. L. McDowell, of Kansas, who had asked 
whether he should give his official service in executing the 
fugitive slave law, said in response to the inquiry : 

It is the President's constitutional duty to " take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed." That means all the laws. He has no right to dis- 
criminate, no right to execute the laws he likes, and leave unexecuted 
those he dislikes. And of course you and I, his subordinates, can have 
no wider latitude of discretion than he has. Missouri is a State in the 
Union. The insurrectionary disorders in Missouri are but individual 
crimes, and do not change the legal status of the State, nor change its 
rights and obligations as a member of the Union. 

A refusal by a ministerial officer to execute any law which properly 
belongs to his ofifice, is an official misdemeanor, of which I have no doubt 
the President would take notice.^ 

The Attorney-General in this instance merely amplified a 
suggestion contained in the inaugural. 

Toward the close of July, 1861, the number of " contra- 
bands " had increased to nine hundred, and the Union com- 
mander again requested instructions.^ Secretary Cameron's 
reply on the 8th of August following merely authorized, what 
General Butler had all along been doing, employing them at 
such labor as they were adapted to and keeping a complete 
record, so that when peace was restored the essential facts 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 235n. 

' Addresses and Papers of E. L. Pierce, p. 29. 



148 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of each case could easily be ascertained.^ His tact in dealing 
with this question appears from an act of Congress approved 
August 6 in which his extension of meaning to the word 
contraband is adopted. This declared that if persons held 
to labor or service were employed in hostility to the United 
States, the right to their services should be forfeited and such 
persons be discharged therefrom.^ 

Exclusion of fugitive slaves from the quarters and camps 
of troops serving in the Department of Washington was pro- 
vided by a general order of July 17, 1861, and a few weeks 
later, August 10, the departure by railway of negroes from 
the District of Columbia was prevented unless evidence of 
freedom could be adduced.^ 

Far more important, however, than these prudent regula- 
tions of the Adjutant-General was the celebrated proclamation 
of Fremont, dated St. Louis, August 31, 1861, which declared 
martial law throughout the entire State of Missouri and ex- 
pressed a purpose both to confiscate the property and free the 
negroes of all persons in the State who should take up arms 
against the United States or who were shown to have taken 
an active part with their enemy in the field.* The President, 
in a communication of September 2 following, wrote General 
Fremont expressing anxiety concerning the effects of this 
proclamation : " I think there is great danger," said Mr. 
Lincoln, " that the closing paragraph, in relation to the confis- 
cation of property and the liberating slaves of traitorous own- 
ers, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them 
against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for 
Kentucky.^ 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 245. 

* Appendix, Globe, i Sess. 37th Cong., p. 42. 

' McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 245. * Ibid., pp. 245-246. 

' General Anderson had telegraphed President Lincoln that an entire 
company of Kentucky soldiers had laid down their arms upon hearing of 
Fremont's action. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 149 

" Allow me therefore to ask that you will, as of your own 
motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first 
and fourth sections of the act of Congress entitled, ' An act 
to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,' ap- 
proved August 6, 1 86 1, and a copy of which act I herewith 
send you. 

" This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of 
censure." * 

Though General Fremont had acted wholly on his own 
responsibility he refused so to modify that portion of his proc- 
lamation relative to emancipating slaves as to conform to the 
act of Congress referred to, and in a letter requested the Presi- 
dent " openly to direct " him " to make the correction." Re- 
ferring to this part of his communication Mr. Lincoln replied 
on the nth: "Your answer, just received, expresses the 
preference on your part that I should make an open order for 
the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is therefore 
ordered that the said clause of said proclamation be so modi- 
fied, held, and construed, as to conform to, and not to tran- 
scend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the act 
of Congress" approved August 6, 1861.^ 

As late as October 14 the War Department was guided by 
the principles developed in its correspondence with Butler, the 
instructions of that date to General T. W. Sherman being 
based upon this policy.^ A month later inhabitants of the 
eastern shore of Virginia were informed by General Dix 
that " special directions have been given not to interfere with 
the condition of any person held to domestic service; " to 
prevent any such occurrence slaves were not permitted to come 
within his lines.* 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. TJ. 

^ Ibid., pp. 78-79. 

' McPher son's Pol. Hist., pp. 247-248. 

* Ibid., p. 248. 



150 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Besides those who favored military emancipation, a large 
class seriously expected that the war would not only preserve 
the integrity of the Union, but in some way result in a general 
liberation of slaves. This feeling, manifested in various ways, 
was rapidly gathering strength, and as early as November 8 
found enthusiastic expression at a public meeting of two thou- 
sand citizens held in Cooper Institute, New York city. This 
assembly, which convened at the suggestion of Mr. Lincoln, 
was presided over by Hon. George Bancroft and attended by 
many distinguished persons of both the nation and the State. 
Besides the remarks of its illustrious chairman addresses were 
made by William Cullen Bryant, General Ambrose Burnside, 
Professor Francis Lieber and others. Shortly before the 
speakers arrived a gentleman arose in the audience, and in a 
ringing voice proposed " Three cheers for John C. Fremont ! " 
These were given, says a newspaper account, " with electrical 
effect and without a murmur of dissent." The meeting was 
evidently not in entire sympathy with the President's order 
modifying that General's proclamation of the preceding 
August. 

North Carolina, as is well known, was not so ardent for 
secession as most of her sister States in the South; forced to 
take sides, however, she imitated the example of her neighbors. 
Even then all her people did not share the opinions of their 
leaders, and when Federal troops landed in the vicinity of 
Hatteras nearly four thousand loyal inhabitants of the coast 
flocked to their lines and readily took the oath of allegiance 
to the United States; for this conduct they incurred the ex- 
treme hatred of secessionists, who soon reduced them to a 
condition of distress. To rdieve their destitution, by supplies 
of food and clothing, the meeting was called in Cooper Insti- 
tute. Resolutions of sympathy were unanimously adopted; a 
committee of relief was appointed to collect from the city and 
elsewhere such funds as were necessary for the purchase of 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 151 

supplies, which were to be forwarded and distributed in the 
most judicious manner. 

" If the President," said Mr. Bancroft, " has any doubt 
under the terrible conflict into which he has been brought, 
let him hear the words of one of his predecessors. Alien nulli- 
fication raised itself in South Carolina. Andrew Jackson, in 
the watches of the night, as he sat alone finishing that proc- 
lamation, sent the last words of it to Livingston, his bosom 
friend and best adviser. He sent it with these words; I have 
had the letter in my own hands, handed to me by the only 
surviving child of Mr. Livingston. I know the letter which I 
now read is a copy : * I submit the above as the conclusion 
of the proclamation for your amendment and revision. Let it 
receive your best flight of eloquence to strike to the heart and 
speak to the feelings of my deluded countrymen of South 
Carolina. The Union must be preserved without blood if 
this be possible; but it must be preserved at all hazards and 
at any price.' " Mr. Bancroft added : " We send the army 
into the South to maintain the Union, to restore the validity 
of the Constitution. If any one presents claims under the 
Constitution, let him begin by placing the Constitution in 
power, by respecting it and upholding it." 

Francis Lieber referred to slavery as " that great anachro- 
nism, out of time, out of place in the nineteenth century," and 
Rev. Doctor Tyng said, " if slavery is in the way of the 
Union, then tread slavery down into the dust." ^ These senti- 
ments were received with applause. 

Mr. Bancroft a week later wrote to the President : 

Following out your suggestion, a very numerous meeting of New- 
Yorkers assembled last week to take measures for relieving the loyal 
sufferers of Hatteras. I take the liberty to enclose you some remarks 
which I made on the occasion. You will find in them a copy of an un- 
published letter of one of your most honored predecessors, with which 
you cannot fail to be pleased. 

^ N. Y. Tribune, November 8, 1861. 



152 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Your administration has fallen upon times which will be remembered 
as long as human events find a record. I sincerely wish to you the glory 
of perfect success. Civil War is the instrument of Divine Providence to 
root out social slavery. Posterity will not be satisfied with the result un- 
less the consequences of the war shall effect an increase of free States. 
This is the universal expectation and hope of men of all parties.* 

On the 1 8th Mr. Lincoln sent this reply: 

I esteem it a high honor to have received a note from Mr. Bancroft 
inclosing the report of proceedings of a New York meeting taking meas- 
ures for the relief of Union people of North Carolina. I thank you and 
all others participating for this benevolent and patriotic movement. 

The main thought in the closing paragraph of your letter is one which 
does not escape my attention, and with which I must deal in all due 
caution, and with the best judgment I can bring to it.^ 

We have here the key to President Lincoln's treatment of 
the slavery question down to the hour of his lamented death. 
As the hostile employment of negroes constituted by act of 
August 6 a full answer to any claim for service General 
McClellan was informed by Secretary Seward, December 4, 
1 86 1, that the arrest of such persons as fugitives from labor 
" should be immediately followed by the military arrest of 
the parties making the seizure." These instructions were 
called forth by intelligence that Virginia slaves engaged in hos- 
tility to the United States frequently escaped from the enemy 
and took refuge within the lines of the Army of the Potomac. 
Coming afterward into the District of Columbia, such persons 
upon the presumption arising from color, were liable to be 
arrested by the Washington police.^ 

On December 3, 1861, in his first annual message to Con- 
gress, Mr. Lincoln discussed without especial emphasis the 
question of aiding those slaves who had been freed under the 
act of August 6; he observed that this class was dependent 
upon the United States; it was believed that, for their own 

* Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 90. 

' Ibid. 

' Ann. Cycl., 1861, p. 646. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 153 

benefit, many of the States would enact similar laws; he there- 
fore recommended Congress to provide for accepting such 
persons from the States, 

according to some mode of valuation, in lieu, pro tanto, of direct taxes, 
or upon some other plan to be agreed on with such States respectively ; 
that such persons, on such acceptance by the General Government, be at 
once deemed free; and that, in any event, steps be taken for colonizing 
both classes (or the one first mentioned, if the other shall not be brought 
into existence) at some place or places in a climate congenial to them. 
It might be well to consider, too, whether the free colored people already 
in the United States could not, so far as individuals may desire, be in- 
cluded in such colonization. 

To carry out the plan of colonization may involve the acquiring of ter- 
ritory, and also the appropriation of money beyond that to be expended in 
the territorial acquisition. Having practiced the acquisition of territory 
for nearly sixty years, the question of constitutional power to do so is 
no longer an open one with us. The power was questioned at first by 
Mr. Jefferson, who, however, in the purchase of Louisiana, yielded his 
scruples on the plea of great expediency. If it be said that the only legiti- 
mate object of acquiring territory is to furnish homes for white men, this 
measure effects that object; for the emigration of colored men leaves 
additional room for white men remaining or coming here. Mr. Jefferson, 
however, placed the importance of procuring Louisiana more on political 
and commercial grounds than on providing room for population. 

On this whole proposition, including the appropriation of money with 
the acquisition of territory, does not the expediency amount to absolute 
necessity — that without which the Government itself cannot be perpetu- 
ated? 

The war continues. In considering the policy to be adopted for sup- 
pressing the insurrection, I have been anxious and careful that the in- 
evitable conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent and 
remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every case 
thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the pri- 
mary object of the contest on our part, leaving all questions which are not 
of vital military importance to the more deliberate action of the Legisla- 
ture. 

In the exercise of my best discretion I have adhered to the blockade of 
the ports held by the insurgents, instead of putting in force, by procla- 
mation, the law of Congress enacted at the last session for closing those 
ports. 

So, also, obeying the dictates of prudence as well as the obligations of 
law, instead of transcending I have adhered to the act of Congress to 
confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes. If a new law upon 



154 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the same subject shall be proposed, its propriety will be duly considered. 
The Union must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means must be 
employed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and ex- 
treme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are in- 
dispensable.* 

The President's mastery of national affairs is seen in the 
ability and thoroughness with which he treated a great variety 
of important public questions; though his message touches 
with the utmost delicacy the paramount issue of slavery it 
really marked an advance in his position. However, he was 
not yet abreast of the aggressive anti-slavery party in the 37th 
Congress, which had just commenced its first regular session. 

The " increase of free States," which Mr. Bancroft hoped 
would result from the war, and which President Lincoln's 
reply shows had not escaped his attention, was not to be 
effected by military emancipation in the field but by the volun- 
tary action of the States themselves. The caution and judg- 
ment which he brought to bear on this subject are apparent 
from even a casual examination of the message, which refers 
to the number of slaves that had been freed by the incidents 
of war, and to the extreme probability that still others would 
be liberated in its progress. It contained also a recommen- 
dation of colonization, a topic which had long been familiar 
to Americans both North and South. To any new law eman- 
cipating slaves for the participation of their masters in rebel- 
lion, he promised to give due consideration. This part of the 
message had the additional merit of being easily expanded 
into a more definite policy. It was this characteristic prudence 
that led the President to suppress the following remari<s in a 
report which the Secretary of War had prepared for the open- 
ing of Congress in December, 1861 : 

If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels as 
slaves are capable of bearing arms and performing efficient military serv- 

* First Annual Message, December 3, 1861. McPherson's Pol. Hist, 
p. 134; Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 102-103. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 155 

ice, it is the right, and may become the duty, of this government to arm 
and equip them, and employ their services against the rebels, under proper 
military regulation, discipline, and command/ 

Any legislation, or even any extended debate, on these 
recommendations was prevented by questions deemed more 
urgent by Congress. Indeed, the President does not appear 
to have seriously expected favorable action at this time upon 
his suggestions, for he resumed certain efforts which he had 
been carefully considering. He believed that by the pressure 
of war necessities the border States might be induced to take 
up the idea of voluntary emancipation if the General Govern- 
ment would pay their citizens the full property value of the 
slaves they were asked to liberate; and this experiment seemed 
most feasible in the small State of Delaware, which retained 
only the merest fragment of a property interest in the 
institution. 

Even before the appearance of his message a plan of com- 
pensated abolishment had taken definite form in the mind 
of the President, for about November 26 he had prepared 
a draft of a bill for gradual emancipation in Delaware.^ 
Through Congressman George P. Fisher the proposition was 
laid before the General Assembly of that State and received 
favorable consideration in the lower House. By the Senate, 
which convened November 25, 1861, it was taken up for dis- 
cussion on February 7 succeeding. Upon the question, 4 
voted in favor and 4 against concurring in the action of the 
more popular branch of the Legislature. The remaining 
Senator, McFerran, was absent or silent and is not accounted 
for in the journal of this special session. Therefore the 
measure was returned non-concurred in to the other chamber. 
The following preamble and joint resolution relative to the 
proposed emancipation bill are self-explanatory. The Fed- 

^ McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 249. 

' Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 91. 



156 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

eral suggestion was repelled as an unwarranted interference 
in the domestic concerns of that State : 

Whereas, There has been circulating among the members of this Gen- 
eral Assembly a printed draft for a law to be entitled " An act for the 
gradual emancipation of slaves in the State of Delaware with just com- 
pensation to their owners"; and whereas many of the members of this 
General Assembly have been requested to support it, the said draft being 
in the following words: [Then follows the title, together with the 
twenty-one sections composing the bill. To which is added:] And 
whereas it is uncertain that said proposition will be submitted to this 
General Assembly for its action, nevertheless, viewing it to be unworthy 
of their support, they desire to place upon record the grounds of their 
condemnation ; therefore 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of 
Delaivare in General Assembly met, That the members of this Legislature 
were not elected with a view to the passage of any act for the emancipa- 
tion of slaves, but with the understanding, either expressed or implied, 
that legislation upon the distracting subject of slavery was hostile to the 
public peace, and therefore to be avoided ; that the passage of the act 
drafted as aforesaid, inasmuch as it renders Congressional action neces- 
sary, would, upon the apparent application of the State of Delaware, intro- 
duce the slavery question into Congress, would encourage the abolition 
element therein, and fortify it in its purpose to destroy entirely all prop- 
erty in slaves, and furthermore, would be injurious to the quiet and har- 
mony that prevail in this State. 

Be it further resolved by the authority aforesaid, That it is the opinion 
of this General Assembly, that Congress has no right to appropriate a 
dollar for the purchase of slaves, and that such a proposal, coming from 
the source to which it is traceable, evinces a design on the part of those 
having control of our national afifairs to abolish slavery in the States. 

Resolved further, That this General Assembly having in mind the inter- 
ests of the people of Delaware, are not willing, especially at a time of 
financial embarrassment, to make the State of Delaware a guarantor of 
any debt the payment of which depends upon the mere pledge of public 
faith ; that the confidence of the people of this State that nothing would 
ever be done to promote a disunion of our National system, but that it 
would remain, as expressed by Webster " one and inseparable, now and 
forever," having been impaired by the events of the last two years, we are 
and should be very cautious in resting our obligations on the mere faith of 
others ; that by accepting the terms to be ofifered by the United States, 
we should, upon grounds of the plainest equity, be held to have pledged 
the faith of Delaware for the payment of nine hundred thousand dollars 
as mentioned in the draft aforesaid; that, keeping in mind the fact that 



i 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 157 

the power of the nation is now put forth to suppress a rebellion prevail- 
ing throughout a very large portion of its territory, and that in conse- 
quence of such rebellion and the uncertainty of its being speedily quelled, 
the stocks of the United States, which heretofore brought in the market a 
sum far beyond the par value thereof, are now selling at a continually in- 
creasing rate of discount, we are unwilling to pledge the faith of Dela- 
ware (a faith which has never been violated) that the proposed mode of 
payment is safe and proper. 

Resolved further, That when the people of Delaware desire to abolish 
slavery within her borders, they will do so in their own way, having due 
regard to strict equity; that any interference from without, and all sug- 
gestions of saving expense to the people, or others of like character, are 
improper to be made to an honorable people, such as we represent, and 
are hereby repelled — that though the State of Delaware is small, and her 
people not of the richest, they are beyond the reach of any who would 
promote an end by improper interference and solicitations. 

Resolved further, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions, duly at- 
tested, be transmitted to each of our Senators, and to our Representative 
in Congress, to be laid before their respective houses.^ 

Thus ended, so far as Delaware was concerned, the ques- 
tion of compensated emancipation. Precisely why the offer 
of Federal assistance was rejected nowhere clearly appears 
except in the records of the General Assembly. The high 
ground assumed in the resolutions was, of course, the only 
one in harmony with public opinion in the State. There are, 
however, some facts in the history of that Commonwealth 
which afford a partial explanation of the action of its Leg- 
islature. When the Federalist party as a political force had 
disappeared everywhere outside of New England its princi- 
ples and traditions still lingered on in Delaware. The same 
conservative tendency, the same distrust of innovation is seen 
again in the prudent manner in which the authorities of the 
State invested and improved her portion of the surplus revenue 
distributed among the States in 1837. With a half dozen ex- 
ceptions the shares allotted to other members of the Union 

* See " Journal of the Senate of the State of Delaware, At a Special 
Session of the General Assembly, Commenced and held at Dover, on 
Monday, the 25th day of November, 1861." 



158 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

have disappeared, in some instances expended patriotically, 
in others squandered on projects more or less visionary. It 
has frequently been observed, too, that a community whose 
population is chiefly agritultural is apt to view with suspicion 
any financial proposition of great magnitude. Whatever the 
true explanation of her opposition to the policy of the Presi- 
dent, the question at once sank to rest in Delaware; it was 
soon to be revived elsewhere, however, as will presently be 
seen. 

Meanwhile army officers continued to determine, on their 
own authority, very important questions relative to the sur- 
render of fugitive slaves. Major-General Halleck declared in 
a proclamation of February 23, 1862, that " it does not belong 
to the military to decide upon the relation of master and slave. 
Such questions must be settled by the civil courts. No fugi- 
tive slave will therefore be admitted within our lines or camps, 
except when specially ordered by the General commanding." ^ 
General Halleck's order No. 3 of November 20 preceding, as it 
cut off an opportunity for the escape of thousands, occasioned 
much bitter discussion both in and out of Congress. By Hal- 
leck it was explained in these words : " Unauthorized per- 
sons, black or white, free or slaves, must be kept out of our 
camps, unless we are willing to publish to the enemy every- 
thing we do or intend to do." This statement, however, does 
not altogether harmonize with the spirit of his order.^ 

General Buell up to March 6 appears to have uniformly re- 
turned this class of persons, and on the 26th of that month 
General Hooker permitted nine citizens of Maryland to search 
for negroes supposed to have taken refuge with some of the 
regiments in his division. Notwithstanding the commander 
desired that no obstacles be thrown in their way, trouble oc- 
curred when the claimants showed their authority and de- 
manded the surrender of their slaves. They were driven from 
* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 250. * Ibid., p. 248. 



< 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 159 

camp because fears for their safety were entertained by some 
of the officers. The anger of the soldiers appears to have been 
especially aroused by the fact that when within a few yards 
of camp the slaveholders fired two pistol shots at a negro 
who was running past them. ^ 

General Doubleday's opinion, as stated April 6, 1862, by 
the Assistant Adjutant-General, was, " that all negroes 
coming into the lines of any of the camps or forts under his 
command, are to be treated as persons and not as chattels, 

" Under no circumstances," continues this regulation, " hag 
the commander of a fort or camp the power of surrendering 
persons claimed as fugitive slaves, as it cannot be done without 
determining their character. 

" The additional article of war recently passed by Congress 
positively prohibits this." ^ 

Notwithstanding the unmistakable tone of the above, Gen- 
eral Williams announced two months later from his headquar-. 
ters at Baton Rouge that commanders of the camps and gan 
risons in that part of Louisiana were required to turn all 
fugitives beyond the limits of their guards and sentinels be- 
cause of " the demoralizing and disorganizing tendencies to 
the troops of harboring runaway negroes."* 

Enough has been said to show the divergence of sentiment 
among Federal commanders on the rendition of fugitive slaves. 
The party preferences of officers served as a rather reliable 
index to the treatment of the fugitive in any particular case. 
This confusion, it is scarcely necessary to add, arose from the 
failure of Congress to pass a law on the subject, and to a 
considerable degree from the absence of any clearly expressed 
policy by the Administration. Of the changing opinions of the 
President, however, we catch an occasional glimpse. Though 
the contrabands at Fortress Monroe had, no doubt, brought 

* McPher son's Pol. Hist., p. 250. ' Ibid. 

° Ibid., p. 251. 



i6o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

before him the entire question of slavery, the sagacity of 
General Butler had postponed the necessity of any announce- 
ment in May, 1861; but the subject could not always be 
avoided, and the imprudence of Fremont forced a declaration 
in September following. The events of another year were 
destined to produce changes which even the wisest could not 
then foresee. 

A new phase of this troublesome question resulted from 
the capture, November 7, of Hilton Head, South Carolina, 
and the Federal occupation of the Sea Islands, where the 
labor of slaves abandoned by their masters was organized 
under authority of the Treasury Department by Mr. E. L. 
Pierce. This was, probably, intended as nothing more than an 
experiment, to be extended if successful. To interest Govern- 
ment officials at Washington in the work among these f reed- 
men, Mr. Pierce, at the suggestion of Secretary Chase, called, 
February 15, 1862, upon the President, who seemed rather 
annoyed at the visit, and, after listening a few moments, said 
somewhat impatiently that he did not think he ought to be 
troubled with such details; that " there seemed to be an itch- 
ing to get negroes into our lines." To this Mr. Pierce re- 
plied that the negroes were domiciled there when the Union 
forces took possession. The President then handed his visitor 
a card by which Mr. Chase was authorized to give what in- 
structions he thought judicious relative to Port Royal contra- 
bands.* This impatience Mr. Pierce explains by saying that 
the President was in expectation of a personal bereavement. 
This certainly accounts for the anxiety and apparent annoy- 
ance of Mr. Lincoln, but his remark that there seemed to be 
an " itching " to get negroes inside Federal lines shows that he 
had not yet deliberately considered the novel case of abandoned 
slaves; abandoned masters had hitherto claimed his attention. 

* Addresses and Papers of E. L. Pierce, p. 87 ; also Letters and State 
Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 126. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION i6i 

Though slowly, as it may have appeared to radical members 
of his own party, the President was surely approaching the 
great question, and on March 6, 1862, sent to Congress a 
message which recommended the adoption, and even proposed 
the form, of a joint resolution declaring : 

That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may 
adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, 
to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the incon- 
veniences, public and private, produced by such change of system/ 

As one of the most efBcient means of self-preservation it 
was recommended by the Executive to the coordinate branch 
of Government; for to deprive the cotton States of the hope 
of being joined by the border States would, he said, " sub- 
stantially end the rebellion; and the initiation of emancipation 
completely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. 
The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would 
very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation ; but that while the 
offer is equally made to all, the more Northern shall, by such 
initiation, make it certain to the more Southern that in no 
event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed 
confederacy." Gradual emancipation he believed better for all 
concerned. The current expenditures of the war would soon 
purchase, at a fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. 
However, it was proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice. 
" In the annual message, last December," continued the Presi- 
dent, " I thought fit to say, ' the Union must be preserved, and 
hence all indispensable means must be employed.' I said this 
not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made and con- 
tinues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical 
re-acknowledgment of the national authority would render the 
war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, 
resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is 
impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all 
* Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 129, 



1 62 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispen- 
sable, or may obviously promise great efficiency, toward end- 
ing the struggle, must and will come." 

The message inquired " whether the pecuniary considera- 
tion tendered would not be of more value to the States and 
private persons concerned than are the institution and property 
in it, in the present aspect of affairs? " ^ 

This was really a great step in advance; by many it was 
regarded as a direct and positive interference with the domestic 
institutions of the States; it was certainly a preliminary 
movement to get rid of slavery. The deliberate opinion of 
the Delaware Legislature has already been noticed. 

Easily distinguished in principle from the opposition in 
Delaware were the sentiments expressed in Virginia when the 
equitable and generous proposal of the President came up for 
consideration in the Richmond Legislature. Mr. Collier sub- 
mitted to that body a preamble and resolution relative to the 
proposition. In the former it was said that negro slaves hav- 
ing been the property of their masters for two hundred and 
forty years, by use and custom at first, and subsequently by 
recognition of the public law, ought not to be, and could not 
justly be, interfered with in such property relation by the State, 
by " the people in convention assembled to alter an existing 
constitution, or to form one for admission into the confederacy, 
nor by the representatives of the people of the State in the 
Confederate Legislature, nor by any means or mode which 
the popular majority might adopt; and that the State, whilst 
remaining republican in the structure of its government, can 
lawfully get rid of that species of property, if ever, only by the 
free consent of the individual owners." For the State to de- 
prive an individual of this species of property would contra- 
vene the indispensable principles of free government. This 
view, as further explained by its author, denied the power of 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 129-130. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 163 

even a majority, in making a new State constitution, to dis- 
turb a preexisting and resident property.^ 

Three days after sending his recommendation to Congress, 
the President wrote privately to Henry J. Raymond, editor of 
the New York Times: 

I am grateful to the New York journals and not less so to the 
" Times " than to others, for their kind notices of the late special message 
to Congress. 

Your paper, however, intimates that the proposition, though well inten- 
tioned, must fail on the score of expense. I do hope you will reconsider 
this. Have you noticed the facts that less than one-half day's cost of this 
war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware at $400 per head — that 
eighty-seven days' cost of this war would pay for all in Delaware, Mary- 
land, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri at the same price? 
Were those States to take the step, do you doubt that it would shorten 
the war more than eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of 
expense ? 

Please look at these things and consider whether there should not be 
another article in the " Times." * 

By his request those Congressmen from the border States 
then in Washington called, March 10, on Mr. Lincoln, who 
explained that his recent message was not inimical to the in- 
terests they represented. In the progress of the war, slaves 
would come into camps and continual irritation be thus main- 
tained. In the border States that condition kept alive a feeling 
of hostility to the Government. He told them further " that 
emancipation was a subject exclusively under the control of 
the States, and must be adopted or rejected by each for 
itself." 3 

Relative to this interview a memorandum of the Hon. John 
W. Crisfield, one of the Maryland Representatives present, 
contains the following entry: " He [the President] was con- 
stantly annoyed by conflicting and antagonistic complaints; on 

* Ann. Cycl., 1862, pp. 799-800. 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 132. 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 210. 



i64 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the one side a certain class complained if the slave was not 
protected by the army; persons were frequently found who, 
participating in these views, acted in a way unfriendly to the 
slave-holder; on the other hand, slave-holders complained that 
their rights were interfered with, their slaves induced to ab- 
scond and protected within the lines; these complaints were 
numerous, loud and deep; were a serious annoyance to him 
and embarrassing to the progress of the war . . . [they] 
strengthened the hopes of the Confederates that at some day 
the border States would unite with them, and thus tend to pro- 
long the war; and he was of opinion, if this resolution should 
be adopted by Congress and accepted by our [the border slave- 
holding] States, these causes of irritation and these hopes 
would be removed, and more would be accomplished toward 
shortening the war than could be hoped from the greatest vic- 
tory achieved by Union armies; . . . that he did not 
claim nor had this Government any right to coerce them " 
to accept the proposition. 

To Mr. Noell's remark that the New York Tribune favored 
the measure and understood it to mean that gradual emancipa- 
tion must be accepted or the border States would get some- 
thing worse, the President replied that he must not be ex- 
pected to quarrel with that journal before the right time; he 
hoped never to have to do it. The message having said that 
" all indispensable means must be employed " to preserve the 
Union, Mr. Crisfield inquired pointedly, what would be the 
effect of the refusal of a State to accept this proposal. Did 
the President, he asked, look '* to any policy beyond the accept- 
ance or rejection of this scheme." Mr. Lincoln candidly re- 
plied that he had " no designs beyond the action of the States 
on this particular subject," though he should lament their 
refusal to accept it. Mr. Crisfield said " he did not think the 
people of Maryland looked upon slavery as a permanent in- 
stitution; and he did not know that they would be very re- 



i 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 165 

luctant to give it up if provision was made to meet the loss 
and they could be rid of the race; but they did not like to 
be coerced into emancipation, either by the direct action of 
the Government or by indirection, as through the emancipation 
of slaves in this District, or the confiscation of Southern 
property as now threatened ; and he thought before they would 
consent to consider this proposition they would require to be 
informed on these points." The President answered that 
" unless he was expelled by the act of God or the Confederate 
armies, he should occupy that house for three years; and as 
long as he remained there Maryland had nothing to fear 
either for her institutions or her interests on the points referred 
to." Representative Crisfield immediately added : " Mr. Presi- 
dent, if what you now say could be heard by the people of 
Maryland, they would consider your proposition with a much 
better feeling than I fear without it they will be inclined to 
do." To this Mr, Lincoln said that a publication of his senti- 
ments would not do; it would force him before the proper 
time into a quarrel which was impending with the Greeley 
faction. This he desired to postpone, or, if possible, altogether 
to avoid. 

To an objection of Governor Wickliffe, of Kentucky, he said 
that the resolution proposed would be considered rather as 
the expression of a sentiment than as involving any constitu- 
tional question. He did not know how the project was re- 
ceived by the members from the free States; some of them had 
spoken to him and received it kindly; but for the most part 
they were as reserved and chary as the border State delega- 
tions; he could not tell how they would vote.* 

To James A. McDougall, of California, who was making 
some opposition in the Senate, he sent, March 14, this private 
communication while the resolution was still pending: 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL pp. 133-135 ; also Mc- 
Pherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 210-21 1. 



q 



1 66 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

As to the expensiveness of gradual emancipation with the plan of 
compensation, proposed in the late message, please allow me one or two 
brief suggestions. 

Less than one half day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in 
Delaware at four hundred dollars per head. 

Thus, all the slaves in Delaware by the census of i860, are. . . 1,798 

400 



Cost of slaves $719,200 

One day's cost of the war 2,000,000 



Again, less than eighty-seven days' cost of this war would, at the 
same price, pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, 
Kentucky, and Missouri. 

Thus, slaves in Delaware 1,798 

Maryland 87,188 

District of Columbia 3,181 

Kentucky 225,490 

Missouri 114,965 

432,622 
400 

Cost of slaves $173,048,800 

Eighty-seven days' cost of war 174,000,000 



Do you doubt that taking the initiatory steps on the part of those 
States and this District would shorten the war more than eighty-seven 
days, and thus be an actual saving of expense? 

A word as to the time and manner of incurring the expense. 
Suppose, for instance, a State devises and adopts a system by which 
the institution absolutely ceases therein by a named day — say January 
I, 1882. Then let the sum to be paid to such a State by the United 
States be ascertained by taking from the census of i860 the number 
of slaves within the State, and multiplying the number by four hun- 
dred — the United States to pay such sums to the State in twenty equal 
annual installments, in six per cent, bonds of the United States. 

The sum thus given, as to time and manner, I think, would not be 
half as onerous as would be an equal sum raised now for the indefinite 
prosecution of the war; but of this you can judge as well as I. I 
enclose a census table for your convenience.' 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 137-138. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 167 

On the same day of the conference with the border State 
delegations, March 10, the resolution, in precisely the lan- 
guage suggested by the President, was introduced by Roscoe 
Conkling, and on the following day by a vote of 89 to 31 
passed the House.^ The Senate by 32 yeas to 10 nays took 
favorable action upon it on the 26. of April succeeding.^ 

It is important to notice that at this time, March, 1862, 
the Government set up no claim of a right by Federal authority 
to interfere with slavery within the limits of a State; also 
that public opinion in the North had advanced to the position 
occupied by Representative McKean more than a year before, 
when he introduced into Congress his resolution for com- 
pensated emancipation.^ 

At a session. May 28, 1862, of the Union Convention of 
Baltimore its Business Committee reported a series of resolu- 
tions which were adopted unanimously, among them one ap- 
proving the wise and conservative policy proposed by the 
President in his message of March 6; that it was not only 
the duty but the interest of the loyal people of Maryland to 
accept the offer of pecuniary aid tendered by the Government 
to inaugurate an equitable plan of emancipation and coloniza- 
tion.* This was the dawn of emancipation in Maryland. 

The President approved, April 16, six days after the passage 
of his cherished measure, an act prohibiting slavery and libera- 
ting slaves in the District of Columbia. It included both com- 
pensation to owners and the principle of colonization.^ 

^ Ann. Cycl., 1862, pp. 346-347. 

' Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 1496. 

' See p. 143 ^ante. 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 226-227. 

° The question of colonizing free blacks out of the United States en- 
gaged the attention of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, who had 
some correspondence on the subject at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. Late in the year 1816 there was organized in the city of Wash- 
ington the " National Colonization Society," of which the expressed 
purpose was to encourage emancipation by procuring a place outside the 



1 68 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Shortly before its passage, April 17, a resolution was favor- 
ably considered by the House to appoint a committee of nine 
empowered to report whether any plan could be proposed and 
recommended for the gradual emancipation of all African 
slaves and the extinction of slavery in Delaware, Maryland. 
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri by the people or 
local authorities thereof, and how far and in what way the 
United States could and ought equitably to aid in facilitating 
either of the above objects. This measure was adopted by 
a vote of 6y to 52, and one week later a committee was ap- 
pointed by the Speaker. 

General Hunter by an order of April 25 had extended 
martial law over South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Two 
weeks later he proclaimed persons in those States heretofore 
held as slaves forever free. " Slavery and martial law in a 
free country " he declared '' altogether incompatible." The 
President in his proclamation of May 19, 1862, rescinding this 
order once more reveals his sentiments on the slavery ques- 
tion. The act of the Department commander, he said, was 
wholly unauthorized. The document continues : " I further 
make known that, whether it be competent for me, as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the army and navy, to declare the slaves 
of any State or States free, and whether, at any time, in any 

United States, preferably in Africa, to which free negroes could be aided 
in emigrating. This, it was believed, would rid the South of its free 
colored population which had already become a nuisance. Until 1830 it 
was warmly supported everywhere, and branches of the society were 
established in nearly every State. In the South its purposes were fur- 
thered by James Madison, by Charles Carroll and by Henry Clay. 
Bushrod Washington became president of the association. Rufus King 
and President Harrison were among its friends in the North. 

Though Texas and Mexico were looked upon as favorable places for 
locating a colony of free blacks, they were sent to the British possession 
of Sierra Leone. In 1821 a permanent location was purchased in Liberia. 
This settlement, with Monrovia as its capital, became independent in 1847. 
The American Colonization Society attracted little notice after the rise, 
about 1829-30, of those known as immediate abolitionists. 



1 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 169 

case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the 
maintenance of the Government to exercise such supposed 
power, are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve 
to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the 
decision of commanders in the field." ^ 

'Mr. Lincoln took this opportunity to point out to those most 
nearly concerned the unmistakable signs of the times, and 
earnestly appealed to them to embrace the offer of compensated 
abolishment, quoting upon that subject the joint resolution of 
Congress. The order of General Hunter, so far as it con- 
cerned the President, could have been dismissed by its dis- 
avowal ; but he went farther : he not only took advantage of 
this occasion earnestly to urge upon the border States very 
serious consideration of the principle of compensated emanci- 
pation, but he raised, without pausing to discuss it, the ques- 
tion of his right as Commander-in-Chief of the army and 
navy to declare the freedom of slaves within the limits of a 
State should such a measure become indispensable to the 
maintenance of the Union. 

For refusing to employ his regiment in returning fugitive 
slaves of disloyal masters, Colonel Paine, of the Fourth Wis- 
consin Volunteers, was placed under arrest in the summer of 
1862; about the same time Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony was 
similarly disciplined both for refusing permission to search 
his camp and for ordering the arrest of those hunting for 
slaves.^ 

Instructions from the War Department, dated July 22, and 
applying to all the States in rebellion except South Carolina 
and Tennessee, authorized the employment as laborers of so 
many persons of African descent as the military and naval 
commanders could use to advantage, and the payment of rea- 
sonable wages for their labor. ^ 

"■ Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 155. 
• McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 251. * Ibid., p. 252. 



170 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

On May 12, 1862, RqDresentative Lovejoy proposed a bill, 
a substitute for one previously reported by him and intro- 
duced by Mr. Isaac N. Arnold : 

To the end that freedom may be and remain forever the funda- 
mental law of the land in all places whatsoever, so far as it lies within 
the powers or depends upon the action of the Government of the United 
States to make it so: Therefore, 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That slavery or invol- 
untary servitude, in all cases whatsoever (other than in the punishment 
of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted) shall hence- 
forth cease, and be prohibited forever in all the Territories of the 
United States, now existing, or hereafter to be formed or acquired in 
aoy way.' 

This measure passed by 85 yeas to 50 nays. In the Senate, 
June 9, it was reported amended by inserting this substitute : 
" That from and after the passage of this act there shall be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the Terri- 
tories of the United States now existing, or which may at 
any time hereafter be formed or acquired by the United States, 
otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted." In this form it passed by a 
vote of 28 to 10 and the House concurred by y2 yeas to 38 
nays.^ 

Charles Sumner, writing June 5, 1862, to a correspondent 
who was impatient at what seemed the short-comings of the 
President, says: 

Your criticism of the President is hasty. I am confident that, if you 
knew him as I do, you would not make it. 

Of course, the President cannot be held responsible for all the misfea- 
sances of subordinates, unless adopted or at least tolerated by him. 
And I am sure that nothing unjust or ungenerous will be tolerated, much 
less adopted, by him. 

I am happy to let you know that he has no sympathy with Stanly in his 
absurd wickedness, closing the schools, nor again in his other act of 

' Globe, Part III., 2 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 2068. 
' Ibid., p. 2618. Ibid., p. 2769. 



I 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 171 

turning our camp into a hunting ground for slaves. He repudiates 
both — positively. The latter point has occupied much of his thought; 
and the newspapers have not gone too far in recording his repeated 
declarations, which I have often heard from his own lips, that slaves 
finding their way into the national lines are never to be re-enslaved. 
This is his conviction, expressed without reserve. 

Could you have seen the President — as it was my privilege often — 
while he was considering the great questions on which he has already 
acted — -the invitation to emancipation in the States, emancipation in the 
District of Columbia, and the acknowledgment of the independence of 
Hayti and Liberia — even your zeal would have been satisfied, for you 
would have felt the sincerity of his purpose to do what he could to 
carry forward the principles of the Declaration of Independence. His 
whole soul was occupied, especially by the first proposition, which was 
peculiarly his own. In familiar intercourse with him, I remember 
nothing more touching than the earnestness and completeness with 
which he embraced this idea. To his mind, it was just and beneficent 
while it promised the sure end of slavery. Of course, to me who had 
already proposed a bridge of gold for the retreating fiend, it was 
most welcome. Proceeding from the President, it must take its place 
among the great events of history. 



I wish that you really knew the President, and had heard the artless 
expression of his convictions on these questions which concern you so 
deeply. You might, perhaps, wish that he were less cautious, but you 
would be grateful that he is so true to all that you have at heart. 
Believe me, therefore, you are wrong, and I regret it the more because 
of my desire to see all our friends stand firmly together.^ 

The President requested and obtained, July 12, 1862, an 
interview with the border State delegations. The near ad- 
journment of Congress would deprive him of an opportunity 
of seeing them for several months. He believed they held 
more power for good than any other equal number of mem- 
bers, and felt that the duty of making an appeal to them 
could not be v^aived. This he did by reading a carefully 
prepared paper. 

The Confederate States, he said, would cling to the hope of 
an ultimate union with the border States as long as they per- 

' McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 233. 



172 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

petuated the institution of slavery. If the members had sup- 
ported his plan of gradual emancipation in the preceding 
March the rebellion would now, 1862, be substantially ended. 

Looking to the stern facts in the case he inquired whether 
they could do better for their States than to follow the course 
which he urged. If the war continued long, the institution 
" will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion," — by 
the incidents of war much of its value was already gone. He 
did not speak of immediate emancipation, " but of a decision 
at once to emancipate gradually." Room for colonization 
could be procured in South America ample and cheap enough. 
When their numbers increased sufficiently to be company for 
one another the freed people would not be so reluctant to 
go. His repudiation of General Hunter's proclamation had 
given ofifence to some whose support the Government could 
not afiford to lose. The pressure from such persons was still 
upon him and the Congressmen from the border slave States 
could relieve him and the country. He begged them to re- 
examine his message of March 6, and commend it to the 
consideration of their constituents. The peril of their common 
country demanded the loftiest views and the boldest action if 
they desired to perpetuate popular government.* 

It was represented to him, in a conversation which followed 
this appeal, that the resolution of Congress, being no more 
than an expression of sentiment, could not be regarded by them 
as a basis for substantial action. Mr. Lincoln admitted that, 
as a condition of taking into consideration a proposition so 
nearly affecting their social system, the border slave States 
were entitled to expect a substantial pledge of pecuniary 
aid. 

It was further represented at this conference that the people 
of the border States were interested in knowing the great im- 
portance which Mr. Lincoln attached to the policy in ques- 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 204-205. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 173 

tion, while it was equally due to the country, to the President 
and to themselves that they should publicly announce the 
motives under which they were called to act, and the considera- 
tions of public policy urged upon them and their constituents. 
With a view to such a statement of their position the members 
met in council to deliberate on the reply they should make, 
and two days later the majority sent the following paper to 
the President: 

" The undersigned . . . have listened to your ad- 
dress with the profound sensibility naturally inspired by the 
high source from which it emanates, the earnestness which 
marked its delivery, and the overwhelming importance of the 
subject of which it treats. We have given it our most repect- 
ful consideration, and now lay before you our response. . . . 

"... Repudiating the dangerous heresies of the 
secessionists, we believed, with you, that the war on their 
part is aggressive and wicked, and the objects for which it 
was to be prosecuted on ours, defined by your message at the 
opening of the present Congress, to be such as all good men 
should approve. We have not hesitated to vote all supplies 
necessary to carry it on vigorously. ..." 

This support, continues the response, was yielded " in the 
face of measures most distasteful to us and injurious to the 
interests we represent, and in the hearing of doctrines, avowed 
by those who claim to be your friends, [which] must be 
abhorrent to us and our constituents." 

The greater number of them did not, however, vote for the 
measure recommended in his message of March 6, and they 
proceeded to state the principal reasons which influenced their 
action. First, it proposed a radical change in their social sys- 
tem; it was hurried through both Houses with undue haste; 
and was passed without any opportunity whatever for consul- 
tation with their constituents, whose interests it deeply in- 
volved. " It seemed," said the majority, " like an interference 



174 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

by this Government with a question which pecuHarly and ex- 
clusively belonged to our respective States, on which they had 
not sought advice or solicited aid. Many of us doubted the 
constitutional power of this Government to make appropria- 
tions of money for the object' designated, and all of us thought 
our finances were in no condition to bear the immense outlay 
which its adoption and faithful execution would impose upon 
the national Treasury. If we pause but a moment to think of 
the debt its acceptance would have entailed, we are appalled by 
its magnitude. The proposition was addressed to all the 
States and embraced the whole number of slaves." 

The census of i860 showed a slave population of nearly 
4,000,000; from natural increase the number in 1862 ex- 
ceeded that. " At even the low average of $300, the price 
fixed by the emancipation act for the slaves of this District, 
and greatly below their real worth, their value runs up to the 
enormous sum of $1,200,000,000; and if to that we add the 
cost of deportation and colonization, at $100 each, which is 
but a fraction more than is actually paid by the Maryland 
Colonization Society, we have $400,000,000 more. They were 
not willing nor could the country bear a tax sufficient to pay 
the interest on that sum in addition to the vast and daily in- 
creasing debt already fixed upon them by the exigencies of 
the war. The proposition is nothing less than the deportation 
from the country of $1,600,000,000 worth of producing labor 
and the substitution of an interest-bearing debt of the same 
amount. Even if it were expected that only the border States 
would accept the proposition, that involved a sum too great 
for the financial ability of the Government at this time. The 
total number of slaves in those States according to the late 
census was 1,196,112. The same rate of valuation with ex- 
penses of deportation and colonization gives the enormous 
sum of $478,038,133. 

" We did not feel that we should be justified in voting for a 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 175 

measure which, if carried out, would add this vast amount to 
our pubHc debt at a moment when the Treasury was reeling 
under the enormous expenditure of the war," 

To them the resolution seemed no more than the enunciation 
of a sentiment. '' No movement was then made to provide and 
appropriate the funds required to carry it into effect; and we 
were not encouraged to believe that funds would be provided. 
And our belief has been fully justified by subsequent events. 
Not to mention other circumstances, it is quite sufficient for 
our purpose to bring to your notice the fact that, while this 
resolution was under consideration in the Senate our colleague, 
the Senator from Kentucky, moved an amendment appropri- 
ating $500,000 to the object therein designated, and it was 
voted down with great unanimity. What confidence, then, 
could we reasonably feel that if we committed ourselves to 
the policy it proposed, our constituents would reap the fruits 
of the promise held out; and on what ground could we, as 
fair men, approach them and challenge their support? " 

They denied that if, as the President alleged, they had 
supported the resolution of March 6, the war would be sub- 
stantially ended, and they added, " The resolution has passed 
and if there be virtue in it, it will be quite as efficacious as if 
we had voted for it." 

The war, they asserted, was prolonged not by reason of 
their conduct, but because of the union of all classes in the 
South. Those who wished to break down national inde- 
pendence and set up State domination, the State-rights party, 
could not be reconciled ; but the large class who believed their 
domestic interests had been assailed by the Government might 
be if only they were convinced " that no harm is intended to 
them and their institutions," but that the Government was 
simply defending its legitimate authority. 

" Twelve months ago," adds this response, " both Houses 
of Congress, adopting the spirit of your message, then but 



176 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

recently sent in, declared with singular unanimity the objects 
of the war, and the country instantly bounded to your side 
to assist you in carrying it on. If the spirit of that resolution 
had been adhered to, we are confident that we should before 
now have seen the end of this deplorable conflict. But what 
have we seen ? 

" In both Houses of Congress we have heard doctrines sub- 
versive of the principles of the Constitution, and seen measure 
after measure founded in substance on those doctrines pro- 
posed and carried through which can have no other effect than 
to distract and divide loyal men, and exasperate and drive still 
further from us and their duty the people of the rebellious 
States. Military officers, following these bad examples, have 
stepped beyond the just limits of their authority in the same 
direction, until in several instances you have felt the necessity 
of interfering to arrest them. . . . The effect of these 
measures was foretold, and may now be seen in the indurated 
state of Southern feeling." 

To these causes, and not to the failure of the border delega- 
tions to support the measure, they attributed the terrible ear- 
nestness of those in arms against the Government. Nor was 
the institution of slavery the source of insurgent strength, 
but rather the apprehension that the powers of a common 
Government would be wielded against the institutions of the 
Southern States. 

The reply concludes : " If Congress, by proper and neces- 
sary legislation, shall provide sufficient funds and place them 
at your disposal, to be applied by you to the payment of any 
of our States or the citizens thereof who shall adopt the abol- 
ishment of slavery, either gradual or immediate, as they may 
determine, and the expense of deportation and colonization of 
the liberated slaves, then will our State [s] and people take this 
proposition into careful consideration, for such decision as 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 177 

in their judgment is demanded by their interest, their honor, 
and their duty to the whole country." ^ 

The minority, seven in number, in their reply of the 15th 
declared themselves ready to make any sacrifice to save the 
Government and the institutions of their fathers, and promised 
to ask the people of their States calmly, deliberately and fairly 
to consider the recommendations of the President; they were 
encouraged to assume this position because the leaders of the 
rebellion had offered to abolish slavery among them as a 
condition of foreign intervention in favor of their independence 
as a nation.^ 

Horace Maynard, though not representing a border State 
proper, expressed his approval of the President's policy and 
stated the physical impossibility of submitting to the considera- 
tion of his people that or any other proposition until Tennessee 
had first been freed from hostile arms. ^ 

A fourth paper submitted to the President was that of 
Senator J. B. Henderson, of Missouri, who had cheerfully 
supported the measure at the time of its introduction; he 
believed the proposition would have received the approbation 
of a large majority of the border State delegations if they 
could have foreseen that the war would have been protracted 
a twelvemonth and had felt assured that the dominant party in 
Congress would, like the President, be as prompt in practical 
action as they had been in the expression of a sentiment. " In 
this period of the nation's distress," says Senator Henderson, 
" I know of no human institution too sacred for discussion; 
no material interest belonging to the citizen that he should not 
willingly place upon the altar of his country, if demanded by 
the public good."* 

Mr. Henderson did not agree with the opinion of the Presi- 

" McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 214-217. * Ibid., pp. 217-218. 

* Ibid., p. 218. * Ibid., pp. 218-220. 



1 78 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

dent that " the war would now be substantially ended " had 
the members from the border States supported the measure 
in the preceding March. Personally he was favorable to the 
proposition, but remembered that he was the servant not the 
master of the people of Missouri. 

To the sudden and unexpected collapse of McClellan's 
Richmond campaign has been ascribed the determination of 
President Lincoln to adopt general military emancipation so 
much sooner than he otherwise would have done. The great 
and decisive element of military strength in the slave popula- 
tion which he saw so clearly a little later could not even then, 
June and July, 1862, have been altogether concealed from his 
keen insight into affairs. His personal appeal to the border 
Congressmen was made July 12; the result of that conference 
he easily anticipated. Nor was the receipt of their written 
replies necessary to inform him that his offer would be re- 
jected. So much he could readily collect from their oral 
objections and verbal criticisms. The decision to give notice 
of his intention to issue a proclamation concerning slavery was 
probably made within a few hours after he had assured Mr. 
Crisfield that the emancipation policy extended no farther than 
to a refusal of the border States to accept his tender of pecuni- 
ary aid to any commonwealth voluntarily adopting the plan of 
gradual abolishment. However this may be, he confided on 
the following day, July 13, 1862, to Secretaries Seward and 
Welles his intention to emancipate slaves by proclamation 
if their masters did not cease to make war on the Govern- 
ment. From the diary of the latter, we learn under what 
circumstances this important communication was made. 

President Lincoln [writes Mr. Welles] invited me to accompany him in 
his carriage to the funeral of an infant child of Mr. Stanton. Secretary 
Seward and Mrs. Frederick Seward were also in the carriage. Mr. 
Stanton occupied at that time, for a summer residence, the house of a 
naval officer, some two or three miles west or northwesterly of George- 
town. It was on this occasion and on this ride that he first mentioned 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 



79 



to Mr. Seward and myself the subject of emancipating the slaves by 
proclamation in case the rebels did not cease to persist in their war 
on the Government and the Union, of which he saw no evidence. He 
dwelt earnestly on the gravity, importance, and delicacy of the move- 
ment; said he had given it much thought, and had about come to the 
conclusion that it was a military necessity, absolutely essential for the 
salvation of the nation, that we must free the slaves or be ourselves sub- 
dued, etc., etc. This was, he said, the first occasion where he had 
mentioned the subject to any one, and wished us to frankly state how the 
proposition struck us. Mr. Seward said the subject involved conse- 
quences so vast and momentous that he should wish to bestow on it 
mature reflection before giving a decisi\?e answer; but his present 
opinion inclined to the measure as justifiable, and perhaps he might say 
expedient and necessary. These were also my views. Two or three 
times on that ride the subject, which was of course an absorbing one 
for each and all, was adverted to, and before separating, the President 
desired us to give the subject special and deliberate attention, for he 
was earnest in the conviction that something must be done. It was 
a new departure for the President, for until this time, in all our pre- 
vious interviews, whenever the question of emancipation or the miti- 
gation of slavery had been in any way alluded to, he had been prompt 
and emphatic in denouncing any interference by the General Govern- 
ment with the subject. This was, I think, the sentiment o£ every 
member of the Cabinet, all of whom, including the President, con- 
sidered it a local domestic question appertaining to the States respec- 
tively, who had never parted with their authority over it. But the 
reverses before Richmond, and the formidable power and dimensions 
of the insurrection, which extended through all the slave States and had 
combined most of them in a confederacy to destroy the Union, im- 
pelled the Administration to adopt extraordinary measures to preserve 
the national existence. The slaves, if not armed and disciplined, were 
in the service of those who were, not only as field laborers and pro- 
ducers, but thousands of them were in attendance upon the armies in 
the field, employed as waiters and teamsters, and the fortifications and 
intrenchments were constructed by them.' 

The session of Congress was drawing to a close, but before 
adjournment the Confiscation Act, passed July 17, 1862, was 
approved by the President. This with kindred laws increased 
the number of forfeitures of title to slaves for the crimes of 

* Quoted in Nicolay and Hay's Abraham Lincoln^ A History, Vol. 
VI. p. 121 et seq. 



i8o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

treason and rebellion. These penalties were by him considered 
just and their imposition constitutional. 

Within five days after the adjournment of Congress the 
President, July 21, 1862, reached his final conclusions on the 
subject of emancipation. The diary of Secretary Chase con- 
tains the following record : 

[Having received notice of a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Chase says:] I 
went to the President's at the appointed hour and found that he was 
profoundly concerned at the present aspect of affairs, and had deter- 
mined to take some definite steps in respect to miUtary action and 
slavery. He had prepared several orders, the first of which contem- 
plated authority to commanders to subsist their troops in the hostile 
territory ; the second, authority to employ negroes as laborers ; the third, 
requiring that both in case of property taken and negroes employed, 
accounts should be kept with such degree of certainty as would enable 
compensation to be made in proper cases. Another provided for the 
colonization of negroes in some tropical country. 

A good deal of discussion took place upon these points. The first 
order was unanimously approved. The second was also unanimously 
approved ; and the third by all except myself. I doubted the expediency 
of attempting to keep accounts for the benefit of inhabitants of rebel 
States. The colonization project was not much discussed. 

The Secretary of War presented some letters from General Hunter, in 
which General Hunter advised the Department that the withdrawal of a 
large proportion of his troops to reenforce General McClellan rendered 
it highly important that he should be immediately authorized to enlist 
all loyal persons without reference to complexion. Mr. Stanton, Mr. 
Seward, and myself expressed ourselves in favor of this plan, and no 
one expressed himself against it. Mr. Blair was not present. The 
President was not prepared to decide the question, but expressed 
himself as averse to arming negroes.^ 

This Cabinet meeting came to no final conclusion, and, as 
we learn from the same source, the discussion was resumed on 
the following day, July 22, when the question of arming the 
slaves was brought up. 

I advocated it warmly [writes Secretary Chase].* The President was 
unwilling to adopt this measure, but proposed to issue a proclamation 

* Schuckers' Life of Salmon Portland Chase, pp. 439-440. 
' Ibid., p. 440. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION i8i 

on the basis of the Confiscation Bill, calling upon the States to return 
to their allegiance — warning rebels that the provisions of the act would 
have full force at the expiration of sixty days — adding, on his own part, 
a declaration of his intention to renew, at the next session of Congress, 
his recommendation of compensation to States adopting gradual abol- 
ishment of slavery — and proclaiming the emancipation of all slaves 
within States remaining in insurrection on the first day of January, 1863/ 

Mr. Chase promised the measure his cordial support, but 
preferred that no new expression on the subject of compensa- 
tion be made at that time. Secretary Chase, in the diary men- 
tioned, says : " The impression left upon my mind by the 
whole discussion was, that, while the President thought that 
the organization, equipment, and arming of negroes, like other 
soldiers, would be productive of more evil than good, he was 
not unwilling that commanders should, at their discretion, arm 
for purely defensive purposes, slaves coming within their 
lines," ^ On the kindred policy of emancipation, however, 
the President had reached a definite conclusion which was in 
advance of the opinions entertained by even the most radical 
members of his Cabinet. When, therefore, he read to them, 
on July 22, his draft of an emancipation proclamation they 
were for the most part taken completely by surprise. This 
momentous document deserves to be reproduced entire. 

In pursuance of the sixth section of the act of Congress entitled " An 
act to suppress insurrection and to punish treason and rebellion, to 
seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," ap- 
proved July 17, 1862, and which act and the joint resolution explanatory 
thereof are herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, do hereby proclaim to and warn all persons within the 
contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, aiding, 
countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion, 
against the Government of the United States, and to return to their 
proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and 
seizures as within and by said sixth section provided. 

And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon the next 
meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical 

^ Shuckers' Life of Chase, pp. 440-441- ^ Ibid., p. 441. 



1 82 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

measure for tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection of anj 
and all States which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining 
the authority of the United States, and which may then have volun- 
tarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, gradual abolishment 
of slavery within such State or States; that the object is to practically 
restore, thenceforward to be maintained, the constitutional relation 
between the General Government and each and all the States wherein 
that relation is now suspended or disturbed ; and that for this object 
the war, as it has been, will be prosecuted. And as a fit and necessary 
military measure for effecting this object, I as Commander-in-Chief 
of the army and navy of the United States, do order and declare that on 
the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State 
or States wherein the constitutional authority of the United States 
shall not then be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained, 
shall then, thenceforward, and forever be free.^ 

The diary of Secretary Chase, as well as the President's 
endorsement on his draft, shows the emancipation proclama- 
tion to have been read to the Cabinet July 22, 1862. Various 
suggestions were offered; but except an objection of Secretary 
Seward they had all been fully anticipated by Mr. Lincoln 
and settled in his own mind. Secretary Seward said : " Mr. 
President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the 
expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of 
the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so 
great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be 
viewed as the last measure of an exhausted Government, a 
cry for help; the Government stretching forth its hands to 
Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the 
Government." 

Speaking afterwards of this incident, Mr. Lincoln said: 
" Seward's idea was * that it would be considered our last 
shriek on the retreat. Now,' added Mr. Seward, ' while I 
approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, 
until you can give it to the country supported by military suc- 
cess, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. IL p. 213. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 183 

greatest disasters of the war ! ' The wisdom of this view," 
said Mr. Lincoln in recalling the occasion, " struck me with 
very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my 
thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The 
result was that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as 
you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory." * 

Instead of the proclamation so carefully discussed, a short 
one was published three days later, of which the most im- 
portant part is as follows : 

In pursuance of the sixth section of the act of Congress entitled 
"An act to suppress insurrection and to punish treason and rebellion, 
to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes," 
approved July 17, 1862, and which act, and the joint resolution explana- 
tory thereof, are herewith published, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
of the United States, do hereby proclaim to and warn all persons 
within the contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, 
aiding, countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebel- 
lion, against the Government of the United States, and to return to their 
proper allegiance to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and 
seizures as within and by said sixth section provided.* 

This warning was required by the sixth section of the act 
mentioned. 

During the following month President Lincoln waited pa- 
tiently for tidings of some unquestioned success that would 
justify the publication of his proclamation, but when instead 
he received in the closing days of August intelligence of the 
second disaster at Manassas his anxiety must have become in- 
tense. This victory, together with the succession of others re- 
cently attending Confederate arms, encouraged General Lee's 
invasion of Maryland. An army, notwithstanding its late re- 
verses, still formidable in numbers and once more thoroughly 
reorganized marched leisurely from the vicinity of Washing- 
ton to locate and destroy him. When, where or how the 

^ Carpenter's Six Months at the White House, pp. 21-22. 
^ Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 214. 



1 84 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

battle-cloud would break was uncertain. All eyes were turned 
on McClellan, again in command of the Union forces and 
strengthened by every soldier that could be spared from the 
defences of the Federal capital. It was in this state of sus- 
pense, and on the very day, September 13, that Lee's victorious 
legions entered Frederick City that the President gave audi- 
ence to a deputation from the religious denominations of 
Chicago, presenting a memorial for the immediate issue of an 
emancipation proclamation, which was enforced by some re- 
marks from the chairman. The President replied that he had 
for weeks past, even for months, thought much upon the 
subject of their memorial. 

" I am approached," said he, " with the most opposite 
opinions and advice, and that by religious men, who are 
equally certain that they represent the Divine will. I am 
sure that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that 
belief, and perhaps, in some respect, both. I hope it will not 
be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God 
would reveal His will to others, on a point so connected with 
my duty, it might be supposed He would reveal it directly to 
me; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, 
it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this 
matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it! These 
are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will 
be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must 
study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is 
possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right." 

The difficulties of the subject and the impossibility of even 
anti-slavery men, in or out of Congress, agreeing upon any 
measure of emancipation were then referred to. However, he 
would discuss the merits of the case and asked pointedly : 

" What good would a proclamation of emancipation from 
me do, especially as we are now situated ? I do not want to 
issue a document that the whole world will see must neces- 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 185 

sarily be inoperative, . . . Would my word free the 
slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the 
rebel States ? Is there a single court, or magistrate, or indi- 
vidual that would be influenced by it there? " 

He admitted to his visitors, however, that he raised no 
objections to such a proclamation as they desired on legal or 
on constitutional grounds; for, continued he, " as Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army and Navy, in time of war I suppose I 
have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the 
enemy, nor do I urge objections of a moral nature, in view of 
possible consequences of insurrection and massacre at the 
South. I view this matter as a practical war measure, to be 
decided on according to the advantages or disadvantages it 
may offer to the suppression of the rebellion." 

The committee replied, and the President added, " I admit 
that slavery is at the root of the rebellion. ... I will 
also concede that emancipation would help us in Europe, and 
convince them that we are incited by something more than 
ambition. I grant, further, that it would help somewhat at 
the North, though not so much, I fear, as you and those you 
represent imagine. . . . Unquestionably, it would weaken the 
rebels by drawing off their laborers, which is of great import- 
ance; but I am not so sure we could do much with the blacks."^ 
The President, too, called attention to the fact that the border 
slave States had 50,000 bayonets in the Union army. It 
would be a serious matter if in consequence of such a procla- 
mation they should go over to the South. In conclusion he 
said that he had not decided against a proclamation of liberty 
to the slaves, but held the matter under advisement and assured 
them that the subject was on his mind by day and by night 
more than any other. 

It was currently reported among anti-slavery men in 
Illinois that the emancipation proclamation was extorted from 
^McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 231-232. 



i86 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the President by the pressure of such delegations as this from 
the Christian Convention.^ To determine how Httle founda- 
tion there is for this opinion it is only necessary to recall what 
had occurred in the Cabinet on July 22, preceding. 

The repulse of Lee's veterans at Antietam, September 17, 
1862, raised somewhat the hopes of the President. On the 
19th General McClellan telegraphed an account of his victory, 
and Mr. Lincoln three days later announced his intention to 
issue the postponed proclamation. 

All the Cabinet members, having been summoned by mes- 
senger from the State Department, were in attendance at the 
White House on September 22, 1862. After some talk of a 
general nature, and the reading by Mr. Lincoln of a humorous 
chapter from a book by Artemus Ward, the conversation as- 
sumed a more serious tone. What subsequently transpired on 
that eventful occasion we learn from the following record in 
the diary of Secretary Chase : 

" Gentlemen, [said the President] I have, as you are aware, thought a 
great deal about the relation of this war to slavery, and you all remember 
that, several weeks ago, I read to you an order I had prepared upon the 
subject, which, on account of objections made by some of you, was not 
issued. Ever since then my mind has been much occupied with this sub- 
ject, and I have thought all along that the time for acting on it might 
probably come. I think the time has come now. I wish it was a 
better time. I wish that we were in a better condition. The action of 
the army against the rebels has not been quite what I should have 
best liked. But they have been driven out of Maryland, and Penn- 
sylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. When the rebel army was 
at Frederick I determined, as soon as it should be driven out of Mary- 
land, to issue a proclamation of emancipation, such as I thought most 
likely to be useful. I said nothing to any one, but I made a promise to 
myself and [hesitating a little] to my Maker. The rebel army is now 
driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise. I have got you 
together to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice 
about the main matter, for that I have determined for myself. This 
I say without intending anything but respect for any one of you. But 
I already know the views of each on this question. They have been 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 233. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 187 

heretofore expressed, and I have considered them as thoroughly and 
as carefully as I can. What I have written is that which my reflec- 
tions have determined me to say. If there is anything in the expres- 
sions I use or in any minor matter which any one of you thinks had 
best be changed, I shall be glad to receive your suggestions. One other 
observation I will make. I know very well that many others might, 
in this matter as in others, do better than I can; and if I was sat- 
isfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed by any one 
of them than by me, and knew of any constitutional way in which he 
could be put in my place, he should have it. I would gladly yield 
it to him. But though I believe that I have not so much of the 
confidence of the people as I had some time since, I do not know 
that, all things considered, any other person has more; and, however 
this may be, there is no way in which I can have any other man put 
where I am. I am here. I must do the best I can, and bear the 
responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take." 

The President then proceeded to read his Emancipation Proclamation, 
making remarks on the several parts as he went on, and showing that 
he had fully considered the subject in all the lights under which it had 
been presented to him. 

After he had closed, Governor Seward said : " The general question 
having been decided, nothing can be said further about that. Would 
it not, however, make the proclamation more clear and decided to 
leave out all reference to the act being sustained during the incum- 
bency of the present President; and not merely say that the Govern- 
ment recognises, but that it will maintain the freedom it proclaims? " 

I followed, saying : " What you have said, Mr. President, fully sat- 
isfies me that you have given to every proposition which has been made 
a kind and candid consideration. And you have now expressed the 
conclusion to which you have arrived clearly and distinctly. This it 
was your right, and, under your oath of office, your duty to do. The 
proclamation does not, indeed, mark out the course I would myself 
prefer; but I am ready to take it just as it is written and to stand by 
it with all my heart. I think, however, the suggestions of Governor 
Seward very judicious, and shall be glad to have them adopted." 

The President then asked us severally our opinions as to the modifi- 
cations proposed, saying that he did not care much about the phrases 
he had used. Every one favored the modification, and it was adopted. 
Governor Seward then proposed that in the passage relating to coloni- 
zation some language should be introduced to show that the colo- 
nization proposed was to be only with the consent of the colonists, and 
the consent of the states in which the colonies might be attempted. 
This, too, was agreed to, and no other modification was proposed. 
Mr. Blair then said that the question having been decided, he would 



1 88 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

make no objection to issuing the proclamation; but he would ask 
to have his paper, presented some days since, against the policy, filed 
with the proclamation. The President consented to this readily. And 
then Mr. Blair went on to say that he was afraid of the influence of 
the proclamation on the border States and on the army, and stated, 
at some length, the grounds of his apprehensions. He disclaimed most 
expressly, however, all objections to emancipation per se, saying he had 
always been personally in favor of it — always ready for immediate 
emancipation in the midst of slave States, rather than submit to the 
perpetuation of the system.* 

The foregoing account from the diary of Secretary Chase 
is fully corroborated by a narrative of Mr. Welles describing 
the same event.^ Mr. Blair, as already observed, believed 
the time inopportune for issuing the proclamation and feared 
as a result that the border States would go over to secession. 
The President, however, thought the difficulty not to act as 
great as to act. There were two sides, he said, to that 
question. For months he had labored to get those States to 
move in this matter, convinced in his own mind that it was 
their true interest to do so, but his labors were vain. " We 
must take the forward movement," he declared. " They would 
acquiesce, if not immediately, soon; for they must be satisfied 
that slavery had received its death-blow from slave-owners — 
it could not survive the rebellion."^ 

When the Cabinet had concluded its deliberations the docu- 
ment was duly attested, the seal affixed and the President's 
signature added. On the following morning, September 23, 
1862, the proclamation was published in full by all the leading 
newspapers of the loyal States, where it excited the most 
profound surprise. Indicating, as it does, the progress of 
opinion, it was the first great landmark of the war; behind it 
lay the old, before it the new order of things. The successive 
steps by which Mr. Lincoln reached this position have been 

* Quoted in Schuckers' Life of Chase, pp. 453-455. 
*The Galaxy, December, 1872, pp. 846-847. 
» Ibid., p. 847. 



ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION 189 

sketched in the present chapter with fullness and, it is be- 
lieved, with accuracy. It has been shown how fugitive slaves 
escaping to the Federal lines were at first surrendered to their 
masters; how soon afterward, as in the case of General But- 
ler's command, they were protected by the army and employed 
as laborers; how in a later stage, certain Union commanders 
who proposed to confiscate slave property or to arm negroes 
as soldiers were gently rebuked and their acts disavowed 
by the President. This forbearance, however, was without 
effect on the Southern people, whose hatred was quite as likely 
to ascribe it to Yankee cowardice as to Yankee magnanimity. 
With this account of the introduction into the problem of 
reconstruction of a novel and very perplexing element we are 
prepared to examine the various theories of State status held 
by those whose position and ability made them leaders of public 
opinion. That subject will be more properly discussed in a 
separate chapter. 



VI 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUC- 
TION 

IN considering the different plans of reconstruction it is 
not deemed necessary to discuss further than has been 
done in the preceding pages the President's theory of 
State status. There, in his effort to estabHsh loyal gov- 
ernments in three of the rebellious States, as well as in the 
protection and encouragement extended to reorganized Vir- 
ginia, we have seen practical applications of that theory. In 
his first inaugural Mr. Lincoln said : " It is safe to assert that 
no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law 
for its own termination," and on the same occasion he added, 
" No State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of 
the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are 
legally void." ^ From the principles of March 4, 1861, was 
logically deduced the central idea of the plan announced in De- 
cember, 1863, and maintained by the President till the last 
hour of his life. In his first message to Congress, submitted at 
the special session beginning July 4, 1861, he again attempted 
to remove the fears of those whose prejudice ascribed to the 
dominant political party a purpose to interfere in the domestic 
concerns of the slaveholding States. As will be seen by the 
following quotation he little more than reiterated on that occa- 
sion what he had solemnly declared four months earlier : 

Lest there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to 
what is to be the course of the Government towards the Southern 
States after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, the Executive 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 106. 

190 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 191 

deems it proper to say, it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided' 
by the Constitution and the laws; and that he probably will have no 
different understanding of the powers and duties of the Federal Govern- 
ment relatively to the rights of the States and the people, under the 
Constitution, than that expressed in the inaugural address. 

He desires to preserve the Government, that it may be administered 
for all, as it was administered by the men who made it. Loyal citizens 
everywhere have the right to claim this of their Government, and the 
Government has no right to withhold or neglect it. It is not per- 
ceived that, in giving it, there is any coercion, any conquest, or any 
subjugation, in any just sense of those terms.^ 

The first paragraph quoted expresses his perfect confidence 
in a successful conclusion of the war, and in this respect sug- 
gests the faith of Charles Sumner, in whose private corre- 
spondence the same thought constantly occurs. In his mes- 
sage the President observed also that Virginia had allowed 
" this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders; 
and this Government has no choice left but to deal with it 
where it finds it. And it has the less regret, as the loyal 
citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those 
loyal citizens this Government is bound to recognize, and 
protect, as being Virginia."^ 

As early as June, 1861, Mr. Lincoln, on application of 
Governor Pierpont, recognized the restored State of Virginia 
by promising assistance to repel invasion and to suppress 
domestic violence; his example was followed by both Houses 
of Congress : first, in the prompt admission of Senators and 
Representatives from that Commonwealth, and long after- 
ward, when there was ample time for reflection, by consenting 
to admit the new State of West Virginia, to whose separate 
and independent existence the reorganized Legislature had 
formally assented. The recognition of Pierpont's government, 
however, involved on the constitutional question little differ- 
ence of opinion between the President and Congress. Thus far 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 129. 

* Ibid., p. 125. 



192 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the political departments, if not in complete harmony, were 
at any rate not in conflict. This act, though it marked no 
distinct Executive policy, was the occasion of some discordant 
notes which will be referred to in their proper relation. 

It may not be unnecessary to observe that underlying the 
early policy of the President was a conviction that the rebel- 
lion was effected by a small but treasonable faction; indeed, 
in the message of July 4 he expressed his belief that, with 
the probable exception of South Carolina, the disloyal were in 
a minority in all the seceding States. The great mass of 
Southern people, it was assumed, opposed disunion, and with 
Federal assistance would soon right themselves. Peaceful 
citizens of that section, being regarded as still under protec- 
tion of the Constitution, were, therefore, not to be molested. 
The conflict waged by the General Government was a per- 
sonal war against insurgents. Leaders who encouraged se- 
dition and committed acts of hostility against the United 
States could be tried precisely as in a consolidated state like 
Great Britain, and upon conviction punished for their treason. 
This attitude was not only wise, but had the additional merit 
of greatly simplifying the method of restoration. It asserted 
further that the rebellious States were still in the Union, 
and under the existing compact could not lawfully withdraw 
from it; being in the Union, they were entitled to all the 
rights accorded to other members of the confederation. In 
brief, its essential idea was the indestructibility of a State, 
and it denied that the integrity of the national domain had 
been impaired or the number of States diminished by the 
ordinances of secession. The General Government could 
properly aid the people of a State to express their will, but, 
beyond what was demanded by the exigencies of the war, 
could not legally exercise those powers constitutionally re- 
served to the States. By the treasonable act of levying war 
against the Republic the rights and franchises incident to 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 193 

United States citizenship were forfeited. The power of Con- 
gress extended no further than to a guaranty of preexisting 
republican forms of government. 

To the correctness of these principles Democrats and Re- 
publicans alike gave almost universal assent. But the war 
was increasing in magnitude, and the measures adequate to 
the suppression of a gigantic rebellion proved to be very 
different from those adapted to a local insurrection. The 
President's original intention was to overcome armed resist- 
ance to Federal power and as speedily as possible restore the 
States to their former relations. This task, however, was 
more easily conceived than accomplished, and in the terrible 
conflict that ensued political parties as well as individual 
statesmen were swept onward from point to point to very 
different resting-places. From this condition resulted the 
great number of theories of reconstruction presented before 
the end of the rebellion. 

The President early in the war adopted principles that 
found little favor with conservative Democrats. His readi- 
ness to recognize the restored State of Virginia was equiva- 
lent to a declaration that if a majority of the people in one of 
the seceded States voluntarily transferred their obedience and 
support to a hostile power the loyal minority constituted the 
State and should govern it. In this connection will be re- 
membered the objections of Bayard and Saulsbury to receiv- 
ing Senators Willey and Carlile from the reorganized gov- 
ernment of Virginia. A further advance is indicated by 
Mr. Lincoln's appointment, early in 1862, of military govern- 
ors for those States that had been brought partly within 
Federal military lines. After the proclamation of September 
22, 1862, and that of January i succeeding, the question of 
restoration was left permanently out of view. If the erring 
States were ever to resume their places they must first recog- 
nize the anti-slavery legislation summarized in the preceding 



194 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

chapter. Hitherto the paramount consideration with the 
President was a speedy restoration of former relations; 
thenceforth " the Union as it was " became impossible, be- 
cause slaves liberated in the progress of the war could never 
be returned to a condition of servitude. The introduction of 
this element greatly increased the difficulties of a problem 
already sufficiently intricate. But neither this nor any other 
consequence of his proclamation appears to have been over- 
looked by the Executive. 

The message of December 8, 1863, together with the ac- 
companying proclamation sketched in outline the only plan 
which Mr. Lincoln ever published on the subject of recon- 
struction, and even to this mode of reinstatement he did not 
require exact conformity, recognizing that its modification 
might be demanded by inherent differences in situation among 
the returning States. By its terms all persons who partici- 
pated in the rebellion, except certain described classes, were 
promised amnesty with restoration of property (excluding 
slaves and those cases of property in which rights of third 
parties intervened) upon taking an oath which pledged sup- 
port of the Constitution and the Union; of the slavery legis- 
lation enacted during the war (unless such acts were repealed 
by Congress, or were modified or annulled by the Supreme 
Court), and adherence to all Executive proclamations on 
that subject so long and so far as not modified or declared 
void by the Judiciary. Whenever in any of the rebellious 
States a number of persons equal to one tenth of the voters 
participating in the Presidential election of i860, who were 
qualified electors under the laws existing immediately before 
the ordinance of secession, should reestablish a State govern- 
ment republican in form, and not contravening this oath, 
it would be recognized as the true government of that State 
and should receive the benefits of the constitutional guaranty. 
To the emancipated race renewed assurance of permanent 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 195 

freedom was given. It was also suggested that in reorganiza- 
tion the poHtical framework of the States be maintained. 
The admission of members elected to Congress was a matter 
for the determination of its respective Houses. 

It is proper to notice in this method of reorganization, 
known afterward as " the Louisiana Plan," the absence of 
any provision for conferring on the freedmen the elective 
franchise. In a private letter to Governor Hahn the Presi- 
dent had, it is true, expressed his personal preference for 
including among the electors such of the colored race as had 
fought gallantly in the Union ranks and also the very intelli- 
gent among them.^ This, however, was only an unofficial 
suggestion. Nor were securities of any sort required for the 
future as a condition of reinstatement. 

Under this plan, which was presented as only a rallying 
point, Union governments had been inaugurated in Tennessee, 
Louisiana and Arkansas; the first two participated in the 
Presidential election of 1864, and before the close of the war 
they had all elected members to Congress. The legality of 
these governments Mr. Lincoln always maintained. How 
Congress regarded them will be related in succeeding chapters. 

Long before the announcement of any mode of reorganiza- 
tion by the Executive, members of the Legislative branch of 
Government had made some efforts in this field; these, how- 
ever, were for the most part tentative and hesitant. The 
question had not yet been brought fairly before Congress; 
indeed, it was in discussing the results and tendencies of 
Presidential reconstruction that the Congressional plan, des- 
tined ultimately to prevail, slowly assumed definitive form. 

As early as December, 1861, Mr. Harlan, of Iowa, intro- 
duced into the Senate a bill for the establishment of pro- 
visional governments for the territory embraced by the States 
of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkan- 

^ See p. 73, ante. 



196 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

sas and Tennessee. It was referred to the Committee on 
Territories, but was never reported. 

More important, however, than this proposed enactment, 
both because of the acknowledged position of their author 
and the influence which they exerted upon the mode of re- 
construction finally adopted, were the nine resolutions offered, 
February ii, 1862, by Charles Sumner. These were "de- 
claratory of the relations between the United States and the 
territory once occupied by certain States, and now usurped 
by pretended governments, without constitutional or legal 
right." A preamble in the characteristic style of this cele- 
brated statesman introduced his famous propositions, which 
were as follows : 

Whereas certain, States, rightfully belonging to the Union of the 
United States, have through their respective governments wickedly 
undertaken to abjure all those duties by which their connection with the 
Union was maintained; to renounce all allegiance to the Constitution; 
to levy war upon the national Government; and, for the consummation 
of this treason, have unconstitutionally and unlawfully confederated 
together, with the declared purpose of putting an end by force to the 
supremacy of the Constitution within their respective limits; and 
whereas this condition of insurrection, organized by pretended govern- 
ments, openly exists in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, except 
in Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia, and has been declared by 
the President of the United States, in a proclamation duly made in 
conformity with an act of Congress, to exist throughout this territory, 
with the exceptions already named; and whereas the extensive territory 
thus usurped by these pretended governments and organized into a 
hostile confederation, belongs to the United States, as an inseparable 
part thereof, under the sanctions of the Constitution, to be held in trust 
for the inhabitants in the present and future generations, and is so 
completely interlinked with the Union that it is forever dependent 
thereupon; and whereas the Constitution, which is the supreme law 
of the land, cannot be displaced in its rightful operation within this 
territory, but must ever continue the supreme law thereof, notwith- 
standing the doings of any pretended governments acting singly or in 
confederation, in order to put an end to its supremacy: Therefore: 

I. Resolved, That any vote of secession or other act by which any 
State may undertake to put an end to the supremacy of the Constitution 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 197 

within its territory is inoperative and void against the Constitution, 
and when sustained by force it becomes a practical abdication by the 
State of all rights under the Constitution, while the treason which it 
involves still further works an instant forfeiture of all those functions 
and powers essential to the continued existence of the State as a body 
politic, so that from that time forward the territory falls under the 
exclusive jurisdiction of Congress as other territory, and the State 
being, according to the language of the law, felo-de-se, ceases to exist. 

2. That any combination of men assuming to act in the place of such 
State, attempting to insnare or coerce the inhabitants thereof into a 
confederation hostile to the Union, is rebellious, treasonable, and desti- 
tute of all moral authority; and that such combination is a usurpation 
incapable of any constitutional existence and utterly lawless, so that 
everything dependent upon it is without constitutional or legal support. 

3. That the termination of a State under the Constitution neces- 
sarily causes the termination of those peculiar local institutions which, 
having no origin in the Constitution or in those natural rights which 
exist independent of the Constitution, are upheld by the sole and 
exclusive authority of the State. 

4. That slavery, being a peculiar local institution, derived from local 
laws, without any origin in the Constitution or in natural rights, is 
upheld by the sole and exclusive authority of the State, and must 
therefore cease to exist legally or constitutionally when the State 
on which it depends no longer exists ; for the incident cannot survive 
the principal. 

5. That in the exercise of its exclusive jurisdiction over the territory 
once occupied by the States, it is the duty of Congress to see that the 
supremacy of the Constitution is maintained in its essential principles, 
so that everywhere in this extensive territory slavery shall cease to 
exist practically, as it has already ceased to exist constitutionally or 
legally. 

6. That any recognition of slavery in such territory, or any surrender 
of slaves under the pretended laws of the extinct States by any officer 
of the United States, civil or military, is a recognition of the pre- 
tended governments, to the exclusion of the jurisdiction of Congress 
under the Constitution, and is in the nature of aid and comfort to the 
rebellion that has been organized. 

7. That any such recognition of slavery or surrender of pretended 
slaves, besides being a recognition of the pretended governments, giving 
them aid and comfort, is a denial of the rights of persons who, by the 
extinction of the States, have become free, so that, under the Constitution, 
they cannot again be enslaved. 

8. That allegiance from the inhabitant and protection from the Gov- 
ernment are corresponding obligations, dependent upon each other, 



198 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

so that while the allegiance of every inhabitant of this territory, without 
distinction of color or class, is due to the United States, and cannot 
in any way be defeated by the action of any pretended Government, or 
by any pretence of property or claim to service, the corresponding 
obligation of protection is at the same time due by the United States 
to every such inhabitant, without distinction of color or class; and it 
follows that inhabitants held as slaves, whose paramount allegiance 
is due to the United States, may justly look to the national Government 
for protection. 

9. That the duty directly cast upon Congress by the extinction of the 
States is reinforced by the positive prohibition of the Constitution that 
" no State shall enter into any Confederation," or " without the consent 
of Congress keep troops or ships-of-war in time of peace, or enter 
into any agreement or compact with another State," or " grant letters 
of marque and reprisal," or " coin money," or " emit bills oi credit," 
or " without the consent of Congress lay any duties on imports or 
exports," all of which have been done by these pretended Govern- 
ments, and also by the positive injunction of the Constitution, addressed 
to the nation, that " the United States shall guaranty to every State 
in this Union a republican form of government," and that in pursuance of 
this duty cast upon Congress, and further enjoined by the Constitution, 
Congress will assume complete jurisdiction of such vacated territory 
where such unconstitutional and illegal things have been attempted, 
and will proceed to establish therein republican forms of government 
under the Constitution; and in the execution of this trust will provide 
carefully for the protection of all the inhabitants thereof; for the 
security of families, the organization of labor, the encouragement of 
industry, and the welfare of society, and will in every way discharge the 
duties of a just, merciful and paternal Government.^ 

Sumner, as already noticed, having confidence in the ulti- 
mate triumph of the national cause, began early in the 
war to reflect on the subject of reorganization. As might 
have been expected from his previous career, his opinion 
of the changes that w^ould result from rebellion inclined 
him at the outset to adopt the views of the less extreme anti- 
slavery men. Notwithstanding this fact, however, his scheme 
of reconstruction, because of its radical and comprehensive 
character, caused something of a sensation when introduced 
in the Senate, and disturbed the repose of many conservative 

' McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 322-323. 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 199 

patriots outside. By leading Republicans it was promptly 
disavowed as the policy of their party. These resolutions, 
though never adopted or even formally discussed by Congress, 
colored somewhat the final work of reconstruction. An ac- 
count of the extent and the manner in which they influenced 
the legislative plan belongs properly to a consideration of the 
acts of March, 1867. What appeared to be a public neces- 
sity had by that time brought many members of his party 
fully abreast of Mr. Sumner. 

The interval had been employed in various ways to keep 
his peculiar theory before the public. ; A private letter to 
Francis Lieber, dated March 29, 1862, shows that Sumner s 
view of the measures essential to restoration had not been 
modified by the discussions of a month. "Assuming," he says, 
" that our military success is complete, and that the rebel 
armies are scattered, what next? Unless I am mistaken, the 
most difficult thing of all, — namely, the reorganization. How 
shall it be done, — by what process ? What power shall set 
a-going the old governments? Will the people cooperate 
enough to constitute self-government ? I have positive opin- 
ions here. If successful in war, we shall have then before us 
the alternative : (i) Separation; or (2) subjugation of these 
States with emancipation. I do not see any escape. Diplo- 
matists here and abroad think it will be separation. I think 
the latter, under my resolutions or something like." ^ 

By a distinguished Confederate officer Sumner has been 
described as a statesman who seemed over-educated, and who 
had retained without having digested his learning; ^ by an ad- 
mirer of his own party as wanting in tact and practical wisdom 
as a legislator. ^ Though it must be admitted that a grain of 
truth forms the basis of these criticisms, yet the letter to his 

* Memoir of Charles Sumner by E. L. Pierce, Vol. IV. pp. 74-75. 

* General Richard Taylor in Destruction and Reconstruction, p. 245. 
•Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II. p. 114. 



200 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

friend Dr. Lieber shows no lack of insight into the events and 
tendencies of the times. Without anticipating a subsequent 
portion of this narrative it may be observed here that if his 
vision did not pierce the remote future, his knowledge and ex- 
perience enabled him to see as much of coming events as the 
most gifted of his contemporaries. Writing a year later, July 
21, 1863, to Hon. John Bright, one of our few friends in Eng- 
land, he remarked that " so great a revolution cannot come to a 
close at once." ^ The defeat of General Lee at Gettysburg a 
few weeks earlier suggested the thought that the destruction of 
the Army of Northern Virginia would have precipitated on 
Congress the entire question of reconstruction, and time was 
an essential element in the development of Sumner's most 
cherished plans. 

Not only in his private correspondence and in the discussion 
of every conceivable measure before Congress did he en- 
deavor to enforce his theory of State status, but he also pub- 
lished in a leading periodical an elaboration and defence of his 
opinions. For many reasons the undelivered speech forming 
the basis of his article in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 
1863, is of remarkable interest. It reveals the mental habits 
of one of the most useful and influential characters then in 
public life; the statesman is really thinking aloud. He ap- 
pears, for instance, to have been much impressed by the fact 
that, under the Commonwealth, Cromwell partitioned his 
country into military districts of which Sumner remarked that 
there were precisely eleven, just the number of States in 
rebellion. One view is enforced by an appropriate passage 
from Cicero, while of Edmund Burke it is asserted that had 
he lived during the Civil War his eloquence would have 
blasted Southern leaders for their folly and madness in en- 
tering upon a career of rebellion. All who are familiar with 
the debates of that period must have observed that Sumner 
* Memoir of Sumner by E. L. Pierce, Vol. IV. p. 143. 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 201 

was considerably influenced by the authority of great names, 
and in consequence sometimes exposed himself to rebuke from 
men who, though in many respects inferior, had studied the 
questions of the day in the light of their own times. 

It is not intended, however, to trace the origin of the doc- 
trine of State suicide or even to suggest all the arguments 
upon which he relied for its support, the purpose of these re- 
marks being rather to show on what principles its essential 
propositions were based. This, it is believed, cannot be better 
done than by explaining the resolutions in his own language. 

In the Atlantic Monthly he wrote: " It is sometimes said 
that the States themselves committed suicide, so that as States 
they ceased to exist, leaving their whole jurisdiction open to 
the occupation of the United States under the Constitution. 
This assumption is founded on the fact that, whatever may 
be the existing governments in these States, they are in no 
respect constitutional, and since the State itself is known 
by the government, with which its life is intertwined, it must 
cease to exist constitutionally when its government no longer 
exists constitutionally." 

He acknowledges the difficulty of defining the entity which 
we call a State. " Among us," says Mr. Sumner, " the term 
is most known as the technical name for one of the political 
societies which compose our Union. . . . Nobody has 
suggested, I presume, that any ' State * of our Union has, 
through rebellion, ceased to exist as a civil society, or even 
as a political community. It is only as a State of the Union, 
armed with State rights, or at least as a local government, 
which annually renews itself, as the snake its skin, that it 
can be called in question. But it is vain to challenge for the 
technical ' State," or for the annual government, that im- 
mortality which belongs to civil society. The one is an 
artificial body, the other is a natural body; and while the 
first, overwhelmed by insurrection or war, may change or 



202 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

die, the latter can change or die only with the extinction of 
the community itself, whatever may be its name or its 
form." 

Phillimore is quoted in support of the proposition that a 
" State," even in a broader signification, may lose its life. 
That author says : " A state, like an individual, may die," 
and, among the various ways in which this may occur, adds, 
"by its submission and the donation of itself to another 
country." " But in the case of our Rebel States," resumes 
Mr. Sumner, " there has been a plain submission and donation 
of themselves, — effective, at least, to break the continuity of 
government, if not to destroy that immortality which has 
been claimed. Nor can it make any difference, in breaking 
this continuity, that the submission and donation, constituting 
a species of attornment, were to enemies at home rather than 
to enemies abroad, — to Jefferson Davis rather than to Louis 
Napoleon. The thread is snapped in one case as much as in 
the other. 

" But a change of form in the actual government may be 
equally effective. Cicero speaks of a change so complete as 
* to leave no image of a state behind.' But this is precisely 
what has been done throughout the whole Rebel region: 
there is no image of a constitutional State left behind." 

The first resolution of the series quoted declares "That 
any vote of secession or other act by which any State may 
undertake to put an end to the supremacy of the Constitution 
within its territory is inoperative and void against the Con- 
stitution, and when sustained by force it becomes a practical 
abdicationhy the State of all its rights under the Constitution." 
Perhaps Mr. Sumner in the essay failed to strengthen his 
original statement of this proposition, which he believed was 
" upheld by the historic example of England, at the Revolu- 
tion of 1688, when, on the flight of James II. and the aban- 
donment of his kingly duties, the two Houses of Parliament 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 203 

voted that the monarch, ' having violated the fundamental 
laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had 
abdicated the government, and that the throne had thereby be- 
come vacant.' " This precedent, which Senator Sumner 
thought applicable, was by no means so formidable an argu- 
ment against the rebellious States as he chose to regard it. If 
the term abdicate is equivalent to a species of informal resigna- 
tion it did not apply strictly to the case of James II., for that 
unfortunate ruler presented to Englishmen the unusual spec- 
tacle of withdrawing from his kingdom under an escort of 
Dutch troops. Doubtless he remembered the saying of his 
father, who proved the truth of the adage in his own person, 
that the distance is short between the prison and the grave 
of a king. The expectation of recovering his throne was a 
motive with James scarcely less powerful than that of taking 
precaution for his personal safety. This intention appears 
from the unsuccessful campaign in Ireland, which he had 
selected as a rallying point. That monarch's real offence was 
his violation of the laws of England. Many of his prede- 
cessors, as well as some of his successors, were as unreason- 
able and as obstinate as he. The charge of abdication was 
scarcely a decent pretext for declaring the throne vacant, and 
Mr. Sumner appears to have forgotten for the moment that 
the Federal Government is one of limited while Parliament 
is clothed with absolute powers. In reality James was co- 
erced by the Prince of Orange into " withdrawing " from the 
Kingdom. It is not intended here to call in question the 
accepted vindication of the Revolution of 1688, but merely to 
show that the Massachusetts statesman was at times not 
above supporting an argument by a legal or an historical 
fiction. 

The same resolution continues : " The treason which it 
[the attempt by force to terminate the supremacy of the 
Constitution] involves still further works an instant for- 



204 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

feiture of all those functions and powers essential to the 
continued existence of the State as a body politic." 

On the idea of State forfeiture his reasoning is entitled 
to more respect. He argues : " But again it is sometimes 
said that the States, by their flagrant treason, have forfeited 
their rights as States, so as to be civilly dead. It is a patent 
and indisputable fact, that this gigantic treason was inaugu- 
rated with all the forms of law known to the State; that it 
was carried forward not only by individuals, but also by 
States, so far as States can perpetrate treason; that the States 
pretended to withdraw bodily in their corporate capacities; — 
that the Rebellion, as it showed itself, was hy States as well 
as in States; that it was by the governments of States as 
well as by the people of States; and that, to the common 
observer, the crime was consummated by the several corpora ■ 
tions as well as by the individuals of whom they were com- 
posed. From this fact, obvious to all, it is argued that, 
since, according to Blackstone, ' a traitor hath abandoned his 
connection with society, and hath no longer any right to the 
advantages which before bdonged to him purely as a member 
of the community,' by the same principle the traitor State 
is no longer to be regarded as a member of the Union. But 
it is not necessary, on the present occasion, to insist on the 
application of any such principle to States." 

Discarding as not essential to his defence the theories of 
State forfeiture. State abdication, or even State suicide, the 
article adds : " It is enough, that, for the time being, and 
in the absence of a loyal government, they can take no part 
and perform no function in the Union, so that they cannot be 
recognized by the National Government. The reason is plain. 
There are in these States no local functionaries bound by 
constitutional oaths, so that, in fact, there are no constitu- 
tional functionaries; and since the State government is neces- 
sarily composed of such functionaries, there can be no State 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 205 

government. Thus, for instance, in South CaroHna, Pickens 
and his associates may call themselves the governor and 
legislature; and in Virginia, Letcher and his associates may 
call themselves governor and legislature; but we cannot recog- 
nize them as such. Therefore to all pretensions in behalf of 
State governments in the Rebel States I oppose the simple 
FACT, that for the time being no such governments exist. 
The broad spaces once occupied by those governments are 
now abandoned and vacated." 

Discussing the question of transition to rightful govern- 
ment he says : " And here the question occurs. How shall this 
rightful jurisdiction be established in the vacated States? 
Some there are, so impassioned for State rights, and so anx- 
ious for forms even at the expense of substance, that they 
insist upon the instant restoration of the old State govern- 
ments in all their parts, through the agency of loyal citizens, 
who meanwhile must be protected in this work of restoration. 
But assuming that all this is practicable, as it clearly is not, 
it attributes to the loyal citizens of a Rebel State, however 
few in numbers, — it may be an insignificant minority, — a 
power clearly inconsistent with the received principle of popu- 
lar government, that the majority must rule, . . . but 
the argument for State Rights assumes that all these rights 
may be lodged in voters as few in number as ever controlled 
a rotten borough of England. 

" Pray admitting that a minority may organize the new 
government, how shall it be done? and by whom shall it be 
set in motion? . . . It is not easy to see how the 
new government can be set in motion without a resort to 
some revolutionary proceeding, instituted either by the citi- 
zens or by the military power, — unless Congress, in the exer- 
cise of its plenary powers, should undertake to organize the 
new jurisdiction. 

" But every revolutionary proceeding is to be avoided. It 



2o6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

will be within the recollection of all familiar with our his- 
tory, that our fathers, while regulating the separation of the 
Colonies from the parent country, were careful that all should 
be done according to the forms of law, so that the thread 
of legality should continue unbroken. To this end the Con- 
tinental Congress interfered by a supervising direction. But 
the Tory argument in that day denied the power of Con- 
gress as earnestly as it denies this power now." . . . 

" But, happily," he says, " we are not constrained to any 
such revolutionary proceeding. The new governments can 
all be organized by Congress, which is the natural guardian 
of people without any immediate government, and within the 
jurisdiction of the Constitution of the United States. Indeed, 
with the State governments already vacated by rebellion, the 
Constitution becomes, for the time, the supreme and only 
law, binding alike on President and Congress, so that neither 
can establish any law or institution incompatible with it. 
And the whole Rebel region, deprived of all local govern- 
ment, lapses under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, 
precisely as any other territory; or, in other words, the lift- 
ing of the local governments leaves the whole vast region 
without any other government than Congress, unless the 
President should undertake to govern it by military 
power." . . . 

This part of the essay concludes with a declaration that 
its author had no pride of opinion, but would cheerfully aban- 
don his views when convinced of their error. He next 
proceeds to an examination of the sources of Congressional 
power. These, he asserts, are derived from the necessity of 
the case, for Congress must have jurisdiction over every por- 
tion of the United States where there is no other government ; 
and from the Rights of War, which he deemed not less abun- 
dant for Congress than for the President. " It is Congress," 
he contended, " that conquers ; and the same authority that 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 207 

conquers must govern." A third source of authority, com- 
mon ahke to Congress and the President, was the constitu- 
tional provision imposing on the United States the duty of 
guarantying republican forms of government. These ample 
powers were confirmed by an additional grant in the clause 
concerning the admission of new States " into this Union." 
The latter left it with Congress to prescribe the time and 
manner of the return of the rebel States, assuming that they 
were no longer de facto States of the Union. 

Among the " unanswerable reasons for Congressional 
governments " the article says : " Slavery is so odious that it 
can exist only by virtue of positive law, plain and unequivocal; 
but no such words can be found in the Constitution. There- 
fore Slavery is impossible within the exclusive jurisdiction 
of the National Government. ... I am glad to believe 
that it is implied, if not expressed, in the Chicago Platform; 
. . . but if the rebel territory falls under the exclusive 
jurisdiction of the National Government, then Slavery will 
be impossible there. . . . The moment that the States 
fell, Slavery fell also; so that, even without any Proc- 
lamation of the President, Slavery had ceased to have 
a legal and constitutional existence in every rebel 
State." » 

" Let it be established in advance," declared Mr. Sumner, 
" as an inseparable incident to every Act of Secession, that 
it is not only impotent against the Constitution of the United 
States, but that, on its occurrence, both soil and inhabitants 
will lapse beneath the jurisdiction of Congress, and no State 
will ever again pretend to secede." 

The argument of which an epitome has been given was 
regarded by the Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair, as 
formidable enough to merit attention, and he accordingly 

* Mr. Sumner, notwithstanding this view, proposed to enact the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation into a law. See pp. 272-273 infra. 



2o8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

replied in a speech at Rockville, Maryland, in which Sumner, 
for arraying himself directly against the President on a ques- 
tion of fundamental policy in the conduct of the war, was 
mentioned with sharp censure. This brought upon the Cabi- 
net member, and upon Mr. Lincoln over his shoulders, much 
vehement criticism. It was in relation to this address that 
the President said: 

The controversy between the two sets of men represented by Blair 
and by Sumner is one of mere form and little else. I do not think Mr. 
Blair would agree that the States in rebellion are to be permitted to 
come at once into the political family and renew their performances, 
which have already so bedeviled us, and I do not think Mr. Sumner 
would insist that when the loyal people of a State obtain supremacy 
in their councils and are ready to assume the direction of their own 
affairs they should be excluded. I do not understand Mr. Blair to 
admit that Jefferson Davis may take his seat in Congress again as a 
representative of his people. I do not understand Mr. Sumner to 
assert that John Minor Botts may not. So far as I understand Mr. 
Sumner, he seems in favor of Congress taking from the Executive the 
power it at present exercises over insurrectionary districts and assuming 
it to itself; but when the vital question arises as to the right and privi- 
lege of the people of these States to govern themselves, I apprehend 
there will be little difference among loyal men. The question at once 
is presented. In whom is this power vested? and the practical matter 
for discussion is how to keep the rebellious population from over- 
whelming and outvoting the loyal minority.^ 

Concisely expressed, the theory of State suicide based re- 
construction upon the right of Congress to legislate for 
Federal territories and to admit new States into this Union. 
In one view it rested on a provision in the Constitution which 
makes it obligatory on the States to have republican govern- 
ments. This side of the doctrine shaded into the conserva- 
tive view, according to which it is the duty of the States 
to be represented in Congress; but Sumner, as will subse- 
quently appear, maintained that the Confederate States should 
not be counted when numbers were to be estimated in the 

* N. and H., Vol. IX. pp. 335-336. 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 209 

adoption of constitutional amendments; also that Congress 
had power to prescribe the qualifications of voters for con- 
ventions in those States. This view regarded the war as a 
conflict of ideas; it assumed to find authority in the individ- 
ual conscience discerning the will of God, was inclined to 
disallow objective standards, and to consider all law as matter 
of subjective determination. From a careful perusal of his 
speeches Mr. Sumner appears to have insisted that a repub- 
lican form of government could be such a one only as con- 
formed to his subjective ideas. Except his own State, whose 
constitution of 1780 was held to have abolished slavery in 
that Commonwealth, no one of the States in 1789 possessed, 
according to his notions, a republican form of government. 
His touchstone of republicanism was the Declaration of In- 
dependence. In short, the requirements of the Constitution 
appear to have been found, not in the written instrument, 
but in his individual conceptions of political justice, equality 
and liberty whereby he constituted himself a new source of 
law. In the matter of a subjective standard of natural jus- 
tice and the like, the " radicals " generally agreed with Sum- 
ner.^ 

The position that the object of the war from the beginning, 
on the part of the Federal authorities, was to fulfill the guar- 
anty of a republican form of government is untenable. It 
may well be doubted whether the community so guaran- 
teed can be restricted to any particular government; indeed, 
it is difficult to see how a government not voluntarily in- 
stituted by the people of a State can be called republican. 
By having a government imposed by Congress they would 
resemble the people of a Territory, and the result would be 
an inequality among the States composing the Union. 

* In his Theory of our National Existence (passim) and in the Amer- 
ican Law Review for January, 1865, Mr. John C. Hurd has much keen 
criticism of the reconstruction theories of Sumner and others. 



210 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Though it has been commended as well written, there is 
some crude thinking and even cruder phraseology in the pre- 
amble as well as in the resolutions themselves. Mr. Sumner 
appears to have been much influenced by feudal and other his- 
torical analogies. It will be seen later how he recoiled some- 
what from accepting fully the consequences of his own prin- 
ciples.^ The famous theory of State suicide, as tersely stated 
by an able advocate of the doctrine, was in effect that " a 
Territory by coming into the Union becomes a State; a State 
by going out of the Union becomes a Territory." ^ 

To offset the resolutions of Sumner, Hon. Garrett Davis, 
of Kentucky, introduced two days later a series of eight prop- 
ositions. Of these the first asserts that the rights, privi- 
leges and liberties which the Constitution assures to the 
people of the United States " are fixed, permanent, and im- 
mutable through all the phases of peace and war, until changed 
by the power and in the mode prescribed by the Constitution 
itself." 

In the light of subsequent events, however, the last is the 
most interesting of the series. This declares " That the 
United States Government should march their armies into 
all the insurgent States, and promptly put down the military 
power which they have arrayed against it, and give pro- 
tection and security to the loyal men thereof, to enable them 
to reconstruct their legitimate State governments, and bring 
them and the people back to the Union and to obedience and 
'duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United 
'States, bearing the sword in one hand and the olive branch 
in the other, and whilst inflicting on the guilty leaders con- 
dign and exemplary punishment, granting amnesty and ob- 
livion to the comparatively innocent masses; and if the people 
of any State cannot, or will not reconstruct their State gov- 

* Colloquy with Senator Doolittle, December 19, 1866, Cong. Globe, 
p. 192. * Brownson's American Republic, p. 308. 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 211 

ernment and return to lo3;alty and duty, Congress should 
provide a government for such State as a Territory of the 
United States, securing to the people thereof their appropriate 
constitutional rights." * 

These propositions, like the resolutions of Sumner, were 
never taken up for discussion, and they are referred to as 
containing a clear expression, by a Southern Democrat,^ of 
extra-constitutional powers in treating incorrigible States as 
Territories. 

Sumner was not alone in maintaining novel opinions con- 
cerning the relation of the seceded States to the Federal Gov- 
ernment. A theory destined to exert even greater influence in 
shaping the plan of reconstruction finally adopted was an- 
nounced at the very commencement^ of hostilities by Thaddeus 
Stevens, of Pennsylvania, then one of the foremost members 
of the Republican party and a few years later its acknowl- 
edged leader in the House. Unlike the Massachusetts Sena- 
tor, Mr. Stevens never formulated his views of State status; 
but as he urged them on almost every conceivable occasion 
the essential principles of his system may be easily collected 
from his numerous speeches in Congress. Subjects of legisla- 
tion only remotely related to his favorite topic appear to have 
been regarded by him as important chiefly because of the 
opportunity afforded to express his sentiments on the meas- 
ures necessary to reorganization. These opinions, he de- 
clared, had been deliberately formed; we know that to the 
end they were persistently urged and ably defended. Because 
of their radical nature and the frequency with which they 
were reiterated Stevens was by many regarded as a sort of 
fanatic; this estimate was confirmed, no doubt, by his bodily 
deformity as well as by an apparent want of amiability and 
a certain bluntness of expression. Even by keen observers he 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 323. 

* Mr. Davis is sometimes classed as a Unionist. 



212 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

was at first considered a man of mediocre ability. But, though 
not to be compared with the giant race of an earlier generation, 
he was a statesman far above the common-place. Among the 
multitude of plans and theories offered in Congress his system 
was distinguished for the harmony of its parts; and enemies 
who hated, no less than followers who feared, him were 
forced to admit the consistency of his principles. 

The limitations of Stevens in the field of constructive 
statesmanship cannot now be discussed; for their consideration 
belongs properly to an examination of the first reconstruction 
act, which was no more than a modification of his theory. 
Long before Sumner's plan had agitated timid conservatives 
the Pennslyvania leader by his extreme opinions had aston- 
ished Congress. When the question of discharging from 
labor or service those slaves employed in hostility to the , 
United States came before the House at the special session f 
beginning July 4, 1861, Stevens said: 

Mr. Speaker, I thought the time had come when the laws of war 
were to govern our action ; when constitutions, if they stood in the way 
of the laws of war in dealing with the enemy, had no right to inter- 
vene. Who pleads the Constitution against our proposed action? 
Who says the Constitution must come in, in bar of our action ? It is the 
advocates of rebels, of rebels who have sought to overthrow the Consti- 
tution and trample it in the dust — who repudiate the Constitution. 
Sir, these rebels, who have disregarded and set at defiance that instru- 
ment, are, by every rule of municipal and international law, estopped 
from pleading it against our action. Who, then, is it that comes to 
us and says, " You cannot do this thing, because your Constitution does 
not permit it?" The Constitution! Our Constitution, which you re- 
pudiate and trample under foot, forbids it ! Sir, it is an absurdity. 
There must be a party in court to plead it, and that party, to be 
entitled to plead it in court, must first acknowledge its supremacy, or 
he has no business to be in court at all. I repeat, then, that those who 
bring in this plea here, in bar of our action, are the advocates of rebels. 
They are nothing else, whatever they intend. I mean it, of course, in 
a legal sense. I mean they are acting in the capacity of counsellors- 
at-law for the rebels ; they are speaking for them, and not for us — who 
are the plaintiffs in this transaction. I deny that they have any right to 
plead at all. I deny that they have any standing in court. I deny that 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 213 

they have any right to invoke this Constitution, which they deny has 
authority over them, which they set at defiance and trample under foot. 
I deny that they can be permitted to come here and tell us we must be 
loyal to the Constitution/ 

The expectation almost universally cherished at this time 
was that when the insurrection should have been suppressed, 
as it was confidently believed it speedily would be, the erring 
States, without the interposition of Federal authority, would 
resume their normal relations to the General Government. 
With this state of public opinion in mind it will readily be 
perceived how great an interval separated Mr. Stevens from 
both parties in Congress. The opening sentence of the re- 
marks quoted contains the essential idea of his theory of the 
change resulting from rebellion. Armed secession had un- 
locked the war powers, and the Constitution, where it con- 
flicted with these powers, had ceased to be a restraint upon 
government. The military had risen superior to the civil 
authority. The principle was boldly and emphatically an- 
nounced that those who repudiated and defied the supreme 
law could not at the same time plead its provisions. 

On January 8, 1863, the appropriation bill being under 
consideration, an amendment was offered to add to the clause 
" for compensation of thirty-three commissioners, at $3,000 
each, and eleven clerks, at $1,200 each, $112,200," the fol- 
lowing : 

Provided, A sufficient sum shall be collected in the insurrectionary 
States to pay said salaries: And provided further, That no greater sum 
shall at any time be paid to said commissioners, or to any of them, 
than shall have been collected from the taxes in the insurrectionary 
States, and paid into the Treasury of the United States. * 

The discussion which ensued brought out an expression of 
views relative to the position of the seceded States under the 
Federal Government. Stevens in the course of his remarks 

^ Globe, I Sess. 37th Cong., p. 414. 

' Globe, Part I., 3 Sess. 37th Cong., p. 238. 



214 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

said : " I did say, sir, that I find no warrant in the Constitu- 
tion for the admission, under the Constitution, of West Vir- 
ginia. I do not know whether the gentleman from Kentucky 
voted for that bill or not." Mr. Dunlap, the member referred 
to, stated that he had voted against the bill, because he deemed 
it unconstitutional. After this explanation the Pennsylvania 
leader proceeded as follows: 

Then the gentleman voted against it upon the same opinion I expressed, 
that it was unconstitutional. But I went further and voted for it 
because I did not believe that the Constitution embraced a State now 
in arms against the Government of this Union and I hold that doctrine 
now. It was not said upon the spur of the occasion. It is a deliberate 
opinion, formed upon a careful examination of the law of the United 
States and the laws of nations. 

Though it may be out of place just now, I will give one or two 
reasons for my opinion. The establishment of our blockade admitted 
the Southern States, the Confederates, to be a belligerent power. Foreign 
nations have all admitted them as a belligerent power. Whenever that 
came to be admitted by us and by foreign nations, it placed the rebel- 
lious States precisely in the condition of an alien enemy with regard 
to duties and obligations. Now, I think there is nothing more plainly 
written in the law of nations than that whenever a war, which is 
admitted to be a national war, springs up between nation and nation, 
ally and ally, confederate and confederate, every obligation which pre- 
viously existed between them, whether treaty, compact, contract, or 
anything else, is wholly abrogated, and from that moment the belliger- 
ents act toward each other, not according to any municipal obligations, 
not according to any compacts or treaties, but simply according 
to the laws of war. And I hold and maintain that with regard to all 
the Southern States in rebellion. I do not speak of Kentucky, but of 
those States which have gone out under an act of legislation or con- 
vention — the Constitution has no binding influence and no application. 

In answer to a question by Representative Dunlap he stated 
further that the seceded States, in his opinion, were not 
members of the Union. " The ordinances of secession," he 
added, " backed by the armed power which made them a 
belligerent nation, did take them, so far as present operations 
are concerned, from under the laws of the nation." When 
asked how, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 215 

Means, he proposed to pass an appropriation to pay officers 
to collect revenue in States which did not belong to the 
Union, he said : 

I propose to levy that tax, and collect it as a war measure. I would 
levy a tax wherever I can upon these conquered provinces, just as all 
nations levy them upon provinces and nations they conquer. If my 
views and principles are right, I would not only collect that tax, but I 
would, as a necessary war measure, take every particle of property, real 
and personal, life estate and reversion, of every disloyal man, and sell 
it for the benefit of the nation in carrying on this war. We have such 
power and we are to treat them simply as provinces to be conquered, 
and as a nation fighting in hostility to us until we do conquer them. 
To me it is a great absurdity to say that men, by millions, in arms, shall 
claim the protection of the provisions of the Constitution and laws made 
for loyal men, while they do not obey one of those laws, but repudiate 
their binding effect. There never was a principle more clear than that 
every obligation, whether in a national or civil point of view, in order to 
be binding, must be reciprocal ; and that the moment the duty ceases 
upon the one part, the obligation ceases upon the other ; and that, in my 
judgment, is precisely the condition of the rebel States now. 

The secession ordinance of South Carolina he characterized 
in response to an inquiry as an act of treason and rebellion, 
and when asked whether the backing up of these ordinances 
by armed force imparted to them any validity, he replied: 
" I hold that so long as they remain in force against us as a 
belligerent power, and until they are conquered, it is in fact 
an existing operation. I will not say anything about its 
legality. [Laughter.] I hold that it is an existing fact, 
and that so far from enforcing any laws, you have not the 
power." 

To Mr. Yeaman, who asked whether those people were then 
citizens of the United States, or whether they formed an in- 
dependent nation, and if the latter whence was derived the 
right or the authority to wage war against them, and to tax 
them for the support of that war, Stevens answered : " I hold 
that the Constitution, in the first place, so far operated that 
when they went into secession and armed rebellion they com- 



2i6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

mitted treason; and that when they so combined themselves 
as to make themselves admitted as belligerents — not merely 
as men in insurrection, but as belligerents — they did acquire 
the right to be treated as prisoners of war, and all the other 
rights which pertain to belligerents under the laws of nations." 
Some members held in utter abhorrence the principles of 
the Pennsylvania leader; others were astonished at their 
boldness. It was in the course of this discussion, participated 
in by many Representatives, that Stevens defined his existing 
as well as his past relations to his party, and referred, not 
without a touch of pride, to the fact that hitherto he had 
pointed out the way for the Republican majority — in short, 
that he had been the political prophet of his party. He 
declared : 

I know perfectly well, as I said before, I do not speak the sentiments 
o£ this side of the House as a party. I know more than that: that for 
the last fifteen years I have always been a step ahead of the party I 
have acted with in these matters; but I have never been so far ahead 
with the exception of the principles I now enunciate, but that the 
members of the party have overtaken me and gone ahead; and they, 
together with the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Olin] will again 
overtake me and go with me, before this infamous and bloody rebellion 
is ended. They will find that they cannot execute the Constitution in the 
seceding States ; that it is a total nullity there ; and that this war must 
be carried on upon principles wholly independent of it. They will come 
to the conclusion that the adoption of the measures I advocated at the 
outset of the war, the arming of the negroes, the slaves of the rebels, 
is the only way left on earth in which these rebels can be exterminated. 
They will find that they must treat those States now outside of the 
Union as conquered provinces and settle them with new men, and drive 
the present rebels as exiles from this country; for I tell you they have 
the pluck and endurance for which I gave them credit a year and a 
half ago in a speech which I made, but which was not relished on this 
side of the House, nor by the people in the free States. They have such 
determination, energy, and endurance, that nothing but actual extermina- 
tion or exile or starvation will ever induce them to surrender to this 
Government. I do not ask gentlemen to indorse my views, nor do I 
speak for anybody but myself; but in order that I may have some 
credit for sagacity, I ask that gentlemen will write this down in their 
memories. It will not be two years before they will call it up, or 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 217 

before they will adopt my views, or adopt the other alternative of a 
disgraceful submission by this side of the country/ 

For himself, for the Administration and for the Republican 
party even so radical an anti-slavery man as Owen Lovejoy 
made haste to repudiate these extreme opinions. 

In debate, January 22, 1864, Stevens enunciated still 
more clearly the fundamental principles of his system. " I 
mean to say," he declared on that occasion, " that if a State, 
as a State, makes war upon the Government and becomes a 
belligerent power, we treat it as a foreign nation, and when 
we conquer it we treat it just as we do any other foreign 
nation." " There can be no neutrals," he added, " in a hostile 
State." If loyal people domiciled in the South desired to 
avoid punishment or the hardships of public enemies, they 
'^Ihitild change their place of residence. 

Relative to discerning the State in the Union minority 
he observed : " If ten men fit to save Sodom can elect a 
Governor and other State officers for and against the eleven 
hundred thousand Sodomites in Virginia, then the democratic 
doctrine that the majority shall rule is discarded and dan- 
gerously ignored. When the doctrine that the quality and 
not the number of voters is to decide the right to govern, then 
we are no longer a republic, but the worst form of despotism." 
It was a mere mockery, he affirmed, to say that a tithe of 
the residents, because they were holier or more loyal than 
others, could change the form and administer the government 
of an organized State. The people who took a State out of 
the Union were subject to the laws of the commonwealth, 
and, so far as the General Government is concerned, sub- 
ject to the laws of war and of nations, both while the war 
continued and when it ended. ^ 

Northern Democrats, from the beginning to the end of 

^ Globe, Part I., i Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 239-243. 
* Globe, Part I., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 317. 



21 8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

reconstruction, were consistent advocates of a doctrine which 
involved no contradictions like the system of Sumner and no 
element of vindictiveness like the " conquered province " 
theory of Stevens. Ordinances of secession they held to be 
null and void ; these measures in no way impaired the vitality 
or contracted the scope of the Constitution because the power 
by which they were temporarily maintained, however near 
to. attaining its object, had not been crowned with success. 
The result of the conflict could alone determine whether the 
bond of union between the seceding and the loyal States had 
been severed. Armed resistance to the supreme law was 
treason in those so engaged, even though such resistance 
was decreed by States. Ante-bellum relations would con- 
tinue unimpaired if the General Government succeeded in 
suppressing the rebellion. This doctrine, once a State in 
the Union always a State, was, so far, in harmony with the 
policy adopted by the Administration at the commencement 
of hostilities. 

With all the following propositions, however, the policy 
of the Government was not in entire accord, nor, indeed, was 
it in exact conformity with the principles above ascribed to the 
President. The people of a State, the Democratic leaders 
asserted, are the State, in the widest sense of that term, 
and they make its fundamental law; to be their constitution 
it must be their unrestrained and voluntary act, not a result 
of coercion or intimidation. When they have freely acted, 
then the only essential conditions of a State constitution, in 
its Federal relations, are that it should be republican in form 
and not conflict with the Constitution of the United States. 
South Carolina, for example, was made a member of the 
Union by the Constitution and the consent of her people; 
except successful revolution no other power could unmake 
her. That revolution being unsuccessful she was still in 
the Union. The idea that a State was partly out of and 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 219 

partly in the Union, Democratic doctrine regarded as an 
absurdity. State officers, indeed, could commit suicide; a 
majority of its people could commit suicide; but the State did 
not, therefore, cease to exist, for the idea of a State involved 
the fourfold notion of a defined territory, people occupying it, 
functions constituting a system of government and officers to 
administer it. 

Representative Joseph K. Edgerton, of Indiana, in an able 
speech delivered February 20, 1865, said that he accepted the 
principle of President Lincoln's inaugural and only regretted 
that after so clear and sound a statement of constitutional law 
and good intentions the President had subsequently come to the 
same conclusion as Mr. Stevens. The theory then announced 
was the only one consistent with the true constitutional idea 
that the Federal Union is a perpetual union of States, and 
that each State, as an individual member of the Union, has 
in itself the same element of perpetuity that belongs to the 
aggregate Republic formed by the Federal union of States. 
The Union can be held to be perpetual only on the principle 
that the States composing it are perpetual corporations or 
bodies politic, and indestructible by any act of the aggregate 
body or by their own act. The States united cannot destroy 
a single commonwealth ; power to do that is power to consoli- 
date the States into one. A single member cannot destroy the 
Union; power to do that is power to secede, and neither con- 
solidation nor secession is a principle of the Union. Here 
we have in amplified form the celebrated declaration of Chief 
Justice Chase, that the Constitution in all its provisions con- 
templates " an indestructible union of indestructible States." ^ 
For a different though a very able presentation of Democratic 
theory the reader is referred to the address of Mr. Pendleton 
on the bill to guarantee republican forms of government to the 
rebellious States.^ 

* Texas vs. White, 7 Wall., p. 725- ' See Chapter VII., pp. 257-261, infra. 



220 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Though this theory of a perpetual Union was the one ahuost 
universally held at the beginning of the war, it came during 
the progress of the conflict to be little regarded by the domi- 
nant party in Congress; by Republican leaders it was soon cast 
aside with indignation or contempt; it remained unaltered 
when their views of State status were adapted to changed con- 
ditions, and the Democratic organization, so far at least as 
reconstruction was concerned, settled down into little more 
than a party of protest. 

The silence in which Sumner's propositions were received 
may be regarded as a negative testimony to the conservative 
sentiments of Senators even after war had existed for nearly 
a year; the House, however, just twelve months before the 
Massachusetts Senator offered his plan, February ii, 1861, 
made a positive declaration of its opinion relative to the limi- 
tations of Federal authority by passing unanimously the fol- 
lowing resolution : " That neither Congress, nor the people 
or the governments of the non-slaveholding States, have the 
right to legislate upon or interfere with slavery in any of 
the slaveholding States in the Union." ^ This deliberate ex- 
pression establishes beyond question the fact that the Con- 
stitution, as then understood, gave no authority to the Federal 
Government to interfere with, control or regulate relations 
between master and slave in any State which recognized the 
right of property in man. On this subject the people were 
practically unanimous, their Representatives entirely so. Even 
three months of war, with all the antagonisms and all the bit- 
terness excited, failed to shake this conviction. 

On July 22, 1 86 1, the day after the disaster at Bull Run, 
Representative Crittenden, of Kentucky, introduced the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the 
country by the disunionists of the Southern States, now in arms against 

' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 36th Cong., p. 857. 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 221 

the constitutional Government, and in arms around the capital; that 
in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feelings of mere 
passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; 
that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression, or 
for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing 
or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, 
but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to 
preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the 
several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are ac- 
complished the war ought to cease. 

Only two votes were recorded against it.^ Four days later 
Andrew Johnson offered in the upper House a resolution in 
nearly the same language, and it was opposed by only five 
Senators. There is little doubt that this practical unanimity 
in Congress reflected the sentiment of almost the entire North. 
This conspicuous landmark, so frequently referred to before 
the reunion was completed, will be useful to show how far 
the warring factions drifted during the progress of the con- 
flict. 

Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, who disliked certain expres- 
sions in the form in which it was proposed, said, relative to the 
object of the war as declared by the resolution : 

I trust this war is prosecuted for the purpose of subjugating all 
rebels and traitors who are in arms against the Government. What 
do you mean by " subjugation"? I know that persons in the Southern 
States have sought to make this a controversy between States and the 
Federal Government, and have talked about coercing States and subju- 
gating States; but, sir, it has never been proposed, so far as I know, on 
the part of the Union people of the United States, to subjugate States or 
coerce States. It is proposed, however, to subjugate citizens who are 
standing out in defiance of the laws of the Union, and to coerce them into 
obedience to the laws of the Union. I dislike that word in this connec- 
tion. In its broadest sense I am opposed to it. If it means the war is not 
for the purpose of the subjugation of traitors and rebels into obedience to 
the laws, then I am opposed to it. I trust the war is prosecuted for that 
very purpose. I move to strike out the words " and in arms around 
the capital," and also the words "or subjugation."* 

* Globe, I Sess. 37th Cong., pp. 222-223. 
' Ibid., p. 258. 



222 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Mr. Harris, of New York, said : " If slavery shall be abol- 
ished, shall be overthrown as a consequence of this war, I 
shall not shed a tear over that result; but, sir, it is not the 
purpose of the Government to prosecute this war for the pur- 
pose of overthrowing slavery. If it comes as a consequence, 
let it come; but it is not an end of the war." * 

In the succeeding chapter will be traced with some degree 
of fullness the sentiments on reconstruction, in July, 1864, not 
only of the majority but of every important element compos- 
ing Congress. The position then attained by the average 
Republican member, it must be repeated, was not reached at a 
single bound. Its progress has been described in the preced- 
ing pages. The vote on the Crittenden resolution marks the 
starting point. There was then, though war had existed for 
three months, no diversity of opinion worthy of notice. The 
successive advances from the declaration, February 11, 1861, 
that neither Congress nor the governments of the free States 
had a constitutional right to interfere with slavery in any 
slaveholding State of the Union to the passage by both 
Houses, July 2, 1864, of the Wade-Davis bill, which proposed 
by Federal law to regulate the franchise in the rebellious 
States, to appoint provisional governors (empowered to dis- 
solve State conventions), and to prescribe provisions for their 
local constitutions, form one of the most instructive commen- 
taries on the importance of necessity as a principle of constitu- 
tional interpretation. 

A resolution introduced December 4, 1861, by Mr. Hol- 
man, of Indiana, for the purpose of getting the House to re- 
affirm the Crittenden propositions of July 22 preceding, was 
tabled by a vote of 71 to 65. ^ 

A discussion of the various theories of reconstruction might 
seem to require in this place, by way of anticipation, at least 

^ Globe, I Sess. 37th Cong., p. 259. 
* Ann. Cycl., 1862, p. 277. 



THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION 223 

a summary of the Congressional plan; but as this was the 
mode of reorganization which was finally imposed on the 
South it is preferred to present its development chronolog- 
ically and to consider it apart. Several of the remaining 
chapters will be devoted to an account of its successive modifi- 
cations until the subject was taken, in December, 1865, alto- 
gether out of Executive hands. 



VII 

RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 

A PREVIOUS chapter, in relating the military events 
which succeeded the disaster at Chickamauga, noticed 
a suggestion of the defeated Federal commander as 
well as Mr. Lincoln's reply relative to the publication at that 
time of a declaration of amnesty to those in arms against the 
Government.^ The double victory of Mission Ridge and 
Lookout Mountain, following the removal of Rosecrans, con- 
firmed the President in his purpose of offering a general par- 
don to those who would lay down their arms and return to 
their obedience to the laws. The Proclamation of December 
8, 1863, followed promptly and brought the subject of recon- 
struction before the Thirty-eighth Congress at its first ses- 
sion. The preceding pages have alluded to the universal 
favor with which that announcement was received. Though 
opposition to Executive measures was hushed for the time, 
it appears only to have gathered strength in this brief interval 
of silence. One short week introduced into the House of 
Representatives a resolution the subsequent progress of which 
brought the dominant party in Congress to the support of a 
measure hostile to that submitted by the President. Its inter- 
esting history may be collected from the pages of the Con- 
gressional Globe. 

On December 15, from the Committee of Ways and Means, 
Thaddeus Stevens reported among other resolutions one to 
refer so much of the President's message as was contained in 

* See p. 23^ante. 

224 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 225 

the Proclamation, and as related to the condition and treat- 
ment of rebellious States, to a special committee of nine to be 
appointed by the Speaker. Henry Winter Davis inquired 
whether Mr. Stevens would accept for that resolution an 
amendment pointing more directly to the purpose in view. 
This substitute read as follows : 

That so much of the President's message as relates to the duty 
of the United States to guarantee a republican form of government 
to the States in which the governments recognized by the United 
States have been abrogated or overthrown, be referred to a select com- 
mittee of nine, to be named by the Speaker, which shall report the 
bills necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing 
guaranty.^ 

Stevens offering no objection, Representative Davis re- 
marked that the language of the resolution was general, and, 
he believed, would cover the whole war; the committee, he 
supposed, intended to point to what, in the very inaccurate 
phraseology of the day, was known as the question of recon- 
struction; but believing there had been no destruction, he 
carefully avoided the use of that term. 

The Government of the United States, continued Mr. 
Davis, was engaged in two operations : the suppression of 
armed resistance to the supreme authority of the nation and a 
very delicate, and perhaps as high a duty — to see, when 
armed resistance should be overcome, that governments re- 
publican in form should be restored in all those States. His 
substitute directed the investigations of the committee to that 
one point. It was not intended as a peremptory instruction to 
the committee to report any particular measure, but to take 
such action as their wisdom should recommend. 

Democratic feeling on this subject appears in an inquiry by 
Representative Brooks, of New York, as to whether republi- 
can governments had not been abrogated and overturned 

* Globe, Part I., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 33. 



226 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

north as well as south of the Potomac since the revolution 
began. ^ 

The amendment of Mr. Davis prevailed, and of the spe- 
cial committee appointed he was made chairman. On January 
1 8, 1864, he asked unanimous consent to report a bill to guar- 
antee certain States a republican form of government. Ob- 
jection having been made, he moved a suspension of the rules ; 
but failing to receive the necessary two thirds vote his motion 
was lost. On February 15 succeeding, when he brought the 
measure before the House again and requested a postponement 
of its consideration for two weeks, it encountered Democratic 
opposition. The bill was then read a first and second time, 
ordered to be printed, and returned to the committee. 

On March 22 the bill came before the House on the ques- 
tion of ordering it to be engrossed and read a third time. In 
its support Mr. Davis made an able address in which he an- 
alyzed the plan proposed by the Executive and emphasized its 
deficiencies. He said : 

The bill which I am directed by the Committee on the Rebellious 
States to report is one which provides for the restoration of civil govern- 
ment in States whose governments have been overthrown. It prescribes 
such conditions as will secure not merely civil government to the people 
of the rebellious States, but will also secure to the people of the United 
States permanent peace after the suppression of the rebellion. 

The bill challenges the support of all who consider slavery the 
cause of the rebellion, and that in it the embers of rebellion will always 
smoulder ; of those who think that freedom and permanent peace are 
inseparable, and who are determined, so far as their constitutional au- 
thority will allow them, to secure these fruits by adequate legislation. 

. . . It is entitled to the support of all gentlemen upon this 
side of the House, whatever their views may be of the nature of the 
rebellion; and the relation in which it has placed the people and 
States in rebellion toward the United States, not less of those who 
think that the rebellion has placed the citizens of the rebel States 
beyond the protection of the Constitution, and that Congress, there- 
fore, has supreme power over them as conquered enemies, than of that 

* Globe, Part I., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 34. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 227 

other class who think that they have not ceased to be citizens and 
States of the United States, though incapable o£ exercising political 
privileges under the Constitution, but that Congress is charged with a 
high political power by the Constitution to guarantee republican gov- 
ernments in the States, and that this is the proper time and the proper 
mode of exercising it. It is also entitled to the favorable consideration 
of gentlemen upon the other side of the House, who honestly and 
deliberately express their judgment that slavery is dead. To them it 
puts the question whether it is not advisable to bury it out of our 
sight, that its ghost may no longer stalk abroad to frighten us from our 
propriety. 

It does not address itself to that class of gentlemen upon the other 
side of the House, if there be any, nor to that class of the people of the 
country who look for political alliance to the men who head the rebellion 
in the South 

It purports, sir, not to exercise a revolutionary authority, but to be 
an execution of the Constitution of the United States, of the fourth 
section of the fourth article of that Constitution, which not merely 
confers the power upon Congress, but imposes upon Congress the 
duty of guaranteeing to every State in this Union a republican form 
of government. That clause vests in the Congress of the United 
States a plenary, supreme, unlimited political jurisdiction, paramount 
over courts, subject only to the judgment of the people of the United 
States, embracing within its scope every legislative measure necessary 
and proper to make it effectual; and what is necessary and proper the 
Constitution refers, in the first place, to our judgment, subject to no 
revision but that of the people. It recognizes no other tribunal. It rec- 
ognizes the judgment of no court. It refers to no authority except 
the judgment and will of the majority of Congress, and of the people 
on that judgment, if any appeal from it. 

[Secession he described as] the act of the people of the States, 
carrying with it all the consequences of such an act. And therefore it 
must be either a legal revolution which makes them independent, and 
makes of the United States a foreign country, or It is a usurpation 
against the authority of the United States, the erection of govern- 
ments which do not recognize the Constitution of the United States, 
which the Constitution does not recognize, and, therefore, not republi- 
can governments of the States in rebellion. The latter is the view 
which all parties take of it. I do not understand that any gentleman on 
the other side of the House says that any rebel government which 
does not recognize the Constitution of the United States, and which is 
not recognized by Congress, is a State government within the meaning 
of the Constitution. Still less can it be said that there is a State 
government, republican or unrepublican, in the State of Tennessee, 
where there is no government of any kind, no civil authority, no or- 



i28 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ganized form of administration except that represented by the flag 
of the United States, obeying the will, and under the orders of the 
military officer in command. It is the language of the President of 
the United States in every proclamation, of Congress in every law on the 
statute-book, of both Houses in their forms of proceeding, and of the 
Courts of the United States in their administration of the law. It is 
the result of every principle of law, of every suggestion of political 
philosophy, that there can be no republican government within the 
limits of the United States that does not recognize, but does repudiate, 
the Constitution, and which the President and the Congress of the 
United States do not, on their part, recognize. Those that are here rep- 
resented are the only governments existing within the limits of the 
United States. Those that are not here represented are not govern- 
ments of the States, republican under the Constitution. And if they be 
not, then they are military usurpations, inaugurated as the permanent 
governments of the States, contrary to the supreme law of the land, 
arrayed in arms against the Government of the United States ; and it 
is the duty, the first and highest duty, of the Government to suppress and 
expel them. Congress must either expel, or recognize and support them. 
If it do not guarantee them, it is bound to expel them ; and they who are 
not ready to suppress them are bound to recognize them. 

" In the famous Rhode Island cases," he continued, the 
Supreme Court of the United States by the mouth of Chief 
Justice Taney, declared " that a military government, estab- 
lished as the permanent government of a State, is not a re- 
publican government in the meaning of the Constitution, and 
that it is the duty of Congress to suppress it. That duty Con- 
gress is now executing by its armies. He [Justice Taney] fur- 
ther said in that case that it is the exclusive prerogative of 
Congress — of Congress, and not of the President — to deter- 
mine what is and what is not the established government of 
the State; and, to come to that conclusion, it must judge of 
what is and what is not a republican government, and its judg- 
ment is conclusive on the Supreme Court, which cannot judge 
of the fact for itself, but accepts the fact declared by the politi- 
cal department of the Government." 

Mr. Davis resumed: 

We are now engaged in suppressing a military usurpation of the 
authority of the State government. When that shall have been accom- 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 229 

plished, there will be no form of State authority in existence which 
Congress can recognize. Our success will be the overthrow of all 
semblance of government in the rebel States. The Government of the 
United States is then, in fact, the only Government existing in those 
States, and it is there charged to guarantee them republican govern- 
ments. 

. . . The duty of guaranteeing carries with it the right to pass all 
laws necessary and proper to guaranty. ... It places in the hands 
of Congress the right to say what is and what is not, with all the light of 
experience and all the lessons of the past, inconsistent, in its judgment, 
with the permanent continuance of republican government ; and if, in 
its judgment, any form of policy is radically and inherently inconsistent 
with the permanent and enduring peace of the country, with the perma- 
nent supremacy of republican government, and it have the manliness 
to say so, there is no power, judicial or executive, in the United States, 
that can even question this judgment but the People; and they can do 
it only by sending other representatives here to undo our work. The 
very language of the Constitution and the necessary logic of the case 
involve that consequence. The denial of the right of secession means 
that all the territory of the United States shall remain under the juris- 
diction of the Constitution. If there can be no State government which 
does not recognize the Constitution, and which the authorities of the 
United States do not recognize, then there are these alternatives, and 
these only: the rebel States must be governed by Congress till they 
submit and form a State government under the Constitution ; or Congress 
must recognize State governments which do not recognize either Congress 
or the Constitution of the United States; or there must be an entire 
absence of all government in the rebel States ; and that is anarchy. To 
recognize a government which does not recognize the Constitution is 
absurd, for a government is not a constitution ; and the recognition of 
a State government means the acknowledgment of men as governors, 
and legislators,' and judges, actually invested with power to make laws, 
to judge of crimes, to convict the citizens of other States, to demand the 
surrender of fugitives from justice, to arm and command the militia, 
to require the United States to repress all opposition to its authority, 
and to protect it from invasion — against our own armies ; whose Sena- 
tors and Representatives are entitled to seats in Congress, and whose 
electoral votes must be counted in the election of the President of a 
Government which they disown and defy ! I To accept the alternative of 
anarchy as the constitutional condition of a State is to assert the failure 
of the Constitution and the end of republican government. Until, there- 
fore, Congress recognize a State government, organized under its aus- 
pices, there is no government in the rebel States except the authority of 
Congress. In the absence of all State government, the duty is imposed 
on Congress ... to administer civil government until the people 



230 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

shall, under its guidance, submit to the Constitution of the United 
States, and, under the laws which it shall impose, and on the conditions 
Congress may require, reorganize a republican government for them- 
selves, and Congress shall recognize that government. 

... Is it yet time to reorganize the State governments? or is 
there not an intermediate period in which sound legislative wisdom 
requires that the authority of Congress shall take possession of and 
temporarily control the States now in rebellion until peace shall be 
restored and republican government can be established deliberately, un- 
disturbed by the sound or fear of arms, and under the guidance of 
law? 

After referring to the condition of the rebellion, Mr. Davis 
declared : " We have occupied a vast area wrested from its 
power, but to this day we have not expelled the rebels from 
any State they ever held." In no portion of those States could 
military power " be withdrawn for a moment without instant 
insurrection"; and he added, "There is no rebel State held 
now by the United States enough of whose population adheres 
to the Union to be intrusted with the government of the State. 
One tenth cannot control nine tenths. Five tenths are no- 
where willing to undertake the control of the other five 
tenths." In West Virginia, he said, such a condition existed 
and had been recognized. " In no other State — the only one 
in respect to which a doubt can exist is Tennessee — in no 
other State is there such a portion of territory held, or any 
such portion of population under our control, or any such por- 
tion of it which is in our control inspired by such sentiments 
toward the Government of the United States, so free from 
fear of the returning wave of rebel invasion, so assured of the 
continued supremacy of the United States, that we ought to 
be willing to trust them with this power. You can get a 
handful of men in the several States who would be glad to 
take the offices if protected by the troops of the United States, 
but you have nowhere a body of independent, loyal partisans 
of the United States, ready to meet the rebels in arms, ready to 
die for the Republic, who claim the Constitution as their birth- 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 231 

right, count all other privileges light in comparison, and re- 
solve at every hazard to maintain it." 

Concerning the loyal masses of the South, of whom so 
much was heard at the beginning of the war, he remarked : 

It is the most astounding spectacle in history that in the Southern 
States, with more than half of the population opposed to it, a great 
revolution was effected against their wishes and against their votes, 
without a battle, a riot, or a protest in behalf of the beneficent Govern- 
ment of their fathers — a revolution whose opponents hastened to lead it, 
without a martyr to the cause they deserted except the nameless heroes 
of the mountains of Tennessee, or a confessor of the faith they had 
avowed save the illustrious Petigru of South Carolina ! 

. . . There is no fact that any one has stated on authority at all 
reliable that any respectable proportion of the people of the Southern 
States now in rebellion are willing to accept any terms that even our 
opponents on the other side of the House are willing to offer them. 

What, then, are we to do with the population in these States? To 
make " confusion worse confounded " by erecting by the side of the 
hostile State government a new State government on the shifting sands 
of that whirlpool, to be supported by us while we are there and to 
turn its power against us when we are driven out? That would be to 
erect a new throne where 

" Chaos umpire sits, 
And by decision more embroils the fray 
By which he reigns." 

In my judgment, it is not safe to confide the vast authority of State 
governments to the doubtful loyalty of the rebel States until armed 
rebellion shall have been trampled into the dust, until every armed rebel 
shall have vanished from the State, until there shall be in the South no 
hope of independence and no fear of subjection, until the United States 
is bearded by no military power and the laws can be executed by courts 
and sheriffs without the ever-present menace of military authority. 
Until we have reached that point, this bill proposes that the President 
shall appoint a civil governor to administer the government under the 
laws of the United States in force in the States respectively at the out- 
break of the rebellion, subject, of course, to the necessities of military 
occupation. 

When military opposition shall have been suppressed, con- 
tinued Mr. Davis, then call upon the people to reorganize their 



232 



LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 



governments in their own way, " subject to the conditions 
that we think essential to our permanent peace, and to prevent 
the revival hereafter of the rebellion. ..." 

To establish republican forms of government that the peo- 
ple of the United States would agree to, three modes were in- 
dicated : " One is to remove the cause of the war by an altera- 
tion of the Constitution of the United States prohibiting slav- 
ery everywhere within its limits. That, sir, goes to the root 
of the matter, and should consecrate the nation's triumph. 
But there are thirty- four States — three fourths of them would 
be twenty-six. I believe there are twenty-five States repre- 
sented in this Congress, so that we, on that basis, cannot 
change the Constitution. It is, therefore, a condition pre- 
cedent in that view of the case, that more States shall have 
governments organized within them." 

He next noticed the calculation based on three fourths of 
the States then represented in Congress, a construction held 
by Thaddeus Stevens, but even that view was not without its 
difficulties. The States of New Jersey, Kentucky, Mary- 
land and Delaware were named as doubtful. If such an 
amendment were adopted it still left " the whole field of the 
civil administration of the States prior to the recognition of 
State governments, all laws necessary to the ascertainment of 
the will of the people, and all restrictions on the return to 
power of the leaders of the rebellion, wholly unprovided for." 
The constitutional amendment met his hearty approval, but 
it was not a complete remedy. 

Relative to the Administration policy, he observed : 

The next plan is that inaugurated by the President of the United 
States in the proclamation of the 8th of December, called the amnesty 
proclamation. That proposes no guardianship of the United States 
over the reorganization of the governments, no law to prescribe who shall 
vote, no civil functionaries to see that the law is faithfully executed, 
no supervising authority to control and judge of the election. But 
if, in any manner, by the toleration of martial law, lately proclaimed the 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 233 

fundamental law, under the dictation of any military authority, or 
under the prescriptions of a provost marshal, something in the form of 
a government shall be presented, represented to rest on the votes of one 
tenth of the population, the President will recognize that, provided it 
does not contravene the proclamation of freedom and the laws of Con- 
gress ; and, to secure that, an oath is exacted. 

Now you will observe that there is no guarantee of law to watch over 
the organization of that government. It may combine all the population 
of a State; it may combine one tenth only; or ten governments may 
come competing for recognition at the door of the Executive mansion. 
The executive authority is pledged ; Congress is not pledged. It may be 
recognized by the military power and may not be recognized by the civil 
power, so that it would have a doubtful existence, half civil and half 
military, neither a temporary government by law of Congress nor a State 
government, something as unknown to the Constitution as the rebel gov- 
ernment that refuses to recognize it. 

In examining the operation of the Executive proclamation 
on the existence of slavery, Mr. Davis asked, how does it 
accomplish the reorganization of the government on the basis 
of universal freedom ? and added : 

The only prescription is that the government shall not contravene the 
provisions of that proclamation. Sir, if that proclamation be valid, then 
we are relieved from all trouble on that score ; but if that proclamation 
be not valid, then the oath to support it is without legal sanction, for 
the President can ask no man to bind himself by an oath to support an 
unfounded proclamation or an unconstitutional law even for a moment, 
still less till it shall have been declared void by the Supreme Court of 
the United States. ... If, therefore, he shall have taken the oath, 
he can, in good conscience as well as in good law, disregard it the 
next moment; so that, in point of fact, the law leaves us where the 
proclamation does ; it adds nothing to its legality, nothing to its force. 

But what is the proclamation which the new governments must not 
contravene? That certain negroes shall be free, and that certain other 
negroes shall remain slaves. The proclamation therefore recognizes the 
existence of slavery. It does just exactly what all the constitutions of 
the rebel States prior to the rebellion did; . . . and, therefore, the 
old constitutions might be restored to-morrow without contravening the 
proclamation of freedom. Those constitutions do not say that the Presi- 
dent shall not have the right, in the exercise of his military authority, 
to emancipate slaves within the States. . . . They do not even 
establish slavery. . . . They merely recognize it just as the procla- 
mation recognizes its existence in parts of Virginia and in parts of 



234 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Louisiana. So that the one tenth of the population at whose hands 
the President proposes to accept and guarantee a State government, 
can elect officers under the old constitution of their State in exactly the 
same terms and with exactly the same powers existing at the time of the 
rebellion, and may, under his proclamation, demand a recognition. 
. . . So soon as the State government is recognized, the operation 
of the proclamation becomes merely a judicial question. The right of a 
negro to his freedom is a legal right divesting a right of property, 
and is to be enforced in the courts; and then the question is what the 
courts will say about the proclamation. Is it valid or invalid? Does 
it of itself confer a legal right to freedom on negroes who were slaves? 
Is it within the authority of the Executive? . . . How local State 
courts, created by the Southern people, will decide such a question 
no one can doubt. ... It is, therefore, under the scheme of the 
President, merely a judicial question, to be adjudged by judicial rules, and 
to be determined by the courts. ... I do not desire to argue the 
legality of the proclamation of freedom. I think it safer to make it law. 
. . . Under the act of 1862 the President is authorized to use the 
negro population for the suppression of the rebellion ; while the rebellion 
lasts, his proclamation in law exempts the slave from the duty of obey- 
ing his master, but after the rebellion is extinguished, the master's rights 
are in his own hands, subject only to the opinion of the courts on the 
legal effect of the proclamation, without a single precedent to sanction 
it, and opposed by the solemn assertions of our Government against the 
principle worked to authorize it. Gentlemen are less prudent or less in 
earnest than I am if they will risk the great issues involved in this 
question on such authorities before the courts of justice. 

By the bill we propose to preclude the judicial question by the solu- 
tion of a political question. How so? By the paramount power of 
Congress to reorganize governments in those States, to impose such con- 
ditions as it thinks necessary to secure the permanence of republican 
government, to refuse to recognize any governments there which do 
not prohibit slavery forever. Ay, gentlemen take the responsibility to 
say, in the face of those who clamor for speedy recognition of govern- 
ments tolerating slavery, that the safety of the people of the United 
States is the supreme law; that their will is the supreme rule of law, 
and that we are authorized to pronounce their will on this subject — 
take the responsibility to say that we will revise the judgments of our 
ancestors ; that we have experience written in blood which they had 
not; that we find now, what they darkly doubted, that slavery is really, 
radically inconsistent with the permanence of republican governments; 
and that, being charged by the supreme law of the land, on our con- 
science and judgment, to guarantee, that is, to continue, maintain, and 



I 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 235 

enforce, if it exist, to institute and restore when overthrown, republican 
governments throughout the broad limits of the republic, we will weed 
out every element of their policy which we think incompatible with its 
permanence and endurance. ... It [the bill] adds to the authority 
of the proclamation the sanction of Congress. . . , 

Gentlemen must deny the jurisdiction of Congress over the States 
where there are no recognized governments, or place a bound or limit 
to the discretion of Congress. . . . 

And if the sentiments of State pride and State rights be touched by 
the assertion of this wide discretion, which men may deny but cannot 
expunge, I would admonish those who dislike it that it is a jurisdiction 
which nothing but the dereliction of the States can wake into activity, 
and they who wish to exclude it from their limits have only not to give 
occasion for its exercise by renouncing obedience to the Constitution 
and pulling down their own State governments. But now the jurisdic- 
tion has attached in all the rebel States. Until Congress has assented, 
there is no State government in any rebel State, and none will be 
recognized except such as recognize the power of the United States; so 
that we come down to this: whether we — and when I say we, I mean 
we upon this side of the House, who are firmly, thoroughly, and hon- 
estly convinced that the time has come not merely to strike the arms 
from the hands of the rebels, but to strike the fetters from the arms of 
the slaves, and remove that domineering and cohesive power without 
which we could have had no rebellion, and which now is its animating 
spirit, and which will die when it dies — . , . 

And if it be time [for Congress to assert its authority] then all I ask 
in conclusion is, that gentlemen will go and read that great argument of 
Daniel Webster in the Rhode Island case . . . where he met this 
semi-revolutionary attempt to count heads and call that the people, and 
maintained — and so the Supreme Court judged when it refused to take 
jurisdiction of the question — that the great political law of America is 
that every change of government shall be conducted under the super- 
vising authority of some existing legislative body throwing the protec- 
tion of law around the polls, defining the rights of voters, protecting 
them in the exercise of the elective franchise, guarding against fraud, 
repelling violence, and appointing arbiters to pronounce the result and 
declare the persons chosen by the people. ... He [Webster] 
maintained it to be the great fundamental principle of the American 
government that legislation shall guide every political change, and that 
it assumes that somewhere within the United States there is always a 
permanent, organized legal authority which shall guide the tottering foot- 
steps of those who seek to restore governments which are disorganized 
and broken down. 



236 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The bill, he asserted in conclusion, was an effort to apply 
this great principle of American law.^ 

Representative Scofield, of Pennsylvania, said, April 29, 
1864, when the subject was again before the House, that the 
continuity of constitutional government in the seceded States 
had been broken, the regular transmission of political power 
interrupted. How, he inquired, should the severed thread 
be joined? By the unconstrained action of the people them- 
selves, say the gentlemen in opposition. He indorsed that 
sentiment, and added that when the people of those States 
should ground the arms of their rebellion, and uncoerced 
take upon themselves the easy yoke and light burden of the 
ever gentle Federal Government it would mark a glad day in 
those uncheerful years of our history. 

For those States from which hostile armies had been ex- 
cluded Congress should legislate or leave the people in the 
rough hand of military law. The bill designed to discharge 
that duty was generally acceptable to any one who conceded 
the propriety of Congressional action, its three prohibitions 
being probably the only debatable points, — that is the assump- 
tion of Confederate debts, the prevention of Confederate 
officers from voting and the prohibition of involuntary servi- 
tude. 

To assume the rebel debt, he asserted, would be to offer a 
high bounty for future rebellions; if rebel officers were per- 
mitted to vote, upon what principle of comparative justice 
could the privilege be denied to ordinary criminals? These 
officers were guilty of the highest crime against government. 
As to the third prohibition he had more to say. 

" If God shall give us victory," continued Mr. Scofield, 
" and enable us to subdue or scatter the army of the enemy, 

^ Appendix, Part IV., Globe, i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 82-85 ; also Speeches 
and Addresses of Henry Winter Davis. New York : Harper & Brothers, 
1867, pp. 368-383. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 237 

is a voluntary reunion of the States possible? I say volun- 
tary because I suppose nobody desires a Union always to be 
maintained by force; and I use the word reunion because no- 
body proposes a form of government different from our present 
system of State brotherhood. I am not now speaking of the 
several plans of reconstruction, for they are designed only 
as temporary devices, looking to a reunion. . . . My 
question looks beyond the battle and beyond reconstruction. 
When the victory is won, if won it shall be, and the transition 
over, will the insurgent States zmllingly stay where they have 
been forcibly put in their old places in the old Union ? . . . 
Our own liberties could not survive their permanent subjuga- 
tion. When the Federal Government becomes strong enough 
to hold eleven States as colonies, it will be too strong, I fear, 
for the people's liberties." All motives for those States ever 
to depart should be removed. 

Similarity of ideas he characterized as the bond of nation- 
ality, and named Ireland, Hungary and Poland to show the 
opposite. In the United States slavery was the one subject 
of estrangement. Could North and South be brought to 
think alike on that subject? The theory that each side could 
hold its own opinions on slavery and no evil consequences 
follow was somewhat to blame. That theory failed in prac- 
tice and for that failure each side blamed the other. 

The fathers, he said, lived under that theory, that slavery 
and freedom could coexist, but they expected that the institu- 
tion would soon become extinct. Hence they only tolerated 
it. Slavery was to recede slowly and freedom to follow 
steadily. Upon that basis they got along very well and so 
could their descendants. Instead of consenting to go, slavery 
demanded expansion and perpetuity. This was reversing the 
compromise of the fathers; this change had to be discussed, 
the slave power took umbrage and secession followed. If one 
sentiment must prevail, then slavery, which could not stand 



238 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

discussion, must yield if there was to be a reunion. To live in 
peace together the North must embrace slavery or the South 
must abandon it. 

To adopt slavery would mean the adoption by 20,000,000 
people of sentiments favorable thereto, whereas the institution 
never had any friends in the North. Those in that section 
so considered were only its apologists. If, three years ago, 
slavery had no real friends in the North, who would advocate 
it when it had attempted to destroy the most beneficent of 
governments ? To reconcile the free States would necessitate 
a change of opinion — to adopt freedom as the dominant idea 
would require simply a change of investment in the sections. 
For the present extinguish the conflagration, for the future 
remove the inflammable material from which it was kindled. 
For the present seize the mad revolutionists of the 
South, for the future destroy the virus that poisoned their 
blood. 

All who favored emancipation he favored as co-workers for 
a voluntary and peaceful reunion of the States; slavery was 
presented merely as an element of discord and disunion and 
as such he asked for its removal.^ 

Mr. Williams said that the war was inaugurated on the 
theory that the States were in, whereas the great fact of war 
was a proclamation that they were out. Northern Demo- 
crats were willing to accept the fact that they were out, with- 
out war — to adopt the principle of the hisses nous faire of 
the rebel authorities and to treat with them upon the idea of 
a reconstruction ; peaceful secession with reconstruction by 
treaty. The severance of the States was complete, though the 
hope of recovery remained. By releasing the crews of their 
privateers, by blockading their ports the Federal authorities 
had recognized them as a de facto government; Federal leg- 
islation had put them under the ban as alien enemies. In the 
* Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1970-1972. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 239 

minds of the framers of the Constitution the theory of an 
indissoluble Union referred to the right, to its organic law. 
They did not mean that it could not be ruptured by violence. 
If the governments of the States were dissolved " they must, 
of course, be reconstructed under the auspices of the conquer- 
ing power, and that not by the Executive, but by the Legisla- 
ture of the Union, whose sword he bears, and which only, 
consistently with the genius of our institutions, the past prac- 
tice of the Government, and the letter as well as spirit of the 
Constitution, can venture to determine what use shall be made 
of the territories conquered by it, and when and upon what 
terms they shall be readmitted into full communion as mem- 
bers of this Government, ... To permit any execu- 
tive officer to declare its law, and set it in motion, and place 
it under the control of a minority — a mere tithe of its citizens 
— with power to send delegates to Congress with representa- 
tion unimpaired and unaffected — even though he should re- 
enact a part of its abrogated Constitution — would be, as I 
think, a monstrous anomaly, a violation of fundamental prin- 
ciples, and a precedent fraught with great danger to republi- 
can liberty. . . . To come back into the Union, it 
must either be born anew or come back with all its rights un- 
impaired, except those material ones which have been de- 
stroyed in the progress of the war. There is, I think, no 
middle ground, as there is no power either here or elsewhere 
to prescribe terms which shall abridge the rights or privileges 
of a State that has not been out of the Union, or returns to it 
in virtue of its original title." The rebellious States, he de- 
clared, " are in the Union for correction, not for heirship." 
In point of fact they were out. 

Replying to an observation of Fernando Wood, Mr. Wil- 
liams said : " We are in favor, at all events, of preserving all 
that is left of it [the Union], and intend, with the blessing of 
God, to win back the residue, and pass it through the fire until 



240 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

it shall come out purged of the malignant element that has 
unfitted it for freedom. 

"... Say that they [the rebellious States] are in 
the Union as before, and all your sacrifices have been idle, 
and all the blood spilled by you has sunk into the earth in 
vain." 

The confiscation and distribution of the great baronial pos- 
sessions of rebel leaders were in his judgment an essential 
element in any feasible plan of reconstruction. He deduced 
from passages in Bynkershoek and Barbeyrac that " every- 
thing belonging to the offending party is confiscated, . . . 
Indemnity, security, and punishment are all, therefore, means 
of self-defense which may be legitimately used." 

Is the forfeiture, he asked, of the estates and property of 
traitors, whether they consist of lands or slaves, required for 
these purposes ? "" Vac Victis " is not the maxim of a hu- 
mane conqueror. Though he would not exclude the idea of 
mercy, he was not clear as to " the wisdom of a proclamation 
of amnesty in advance as a measure of pacification, without 
limits as to time, and where submission after conquest, and 
when it is no longer a virtue but a necessity, is to be rewarded 
with the same impunity as a voluntary return to duty before 
that time." 

Speaking of the nature, cause and fury of the war, he con- 
tinued : " Its suppression has become impossible without re- 
moving the cause of the strife, and disabling our enemy by 
liberating his slaves, and arming them against him." 

No reparation was adequate for the injury inflicted; for, 
said he, " there can be no punishment, except in the divestiture 
of the rights and the seizure of the estates of the guilty lead- 
ers. There is no security except in the distribution of the 
latter." From these he would carve out inheritances for the 
widow and the helpless offspring of the Northern soldier. 

For eighteen months, he observed in conclusion, the war 



I 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 241 

was conducted upon the principle of inflicting as little injury 
as possible upon the enemy. ^ 

The speech of Mr. Williams was marked by considerable 
fluency as well as great elegance of diction; it was the effort 
of a scholar, though not confined strictly to the question be- 
fore the House. He introduced with directness and vigor 
the ideas of indemnity, security and punishment; these, it 
may be remarked, became important elements in determining 
the mode of reinstatement that finally emerged from the chaos 
of resolutions and plans submitted to Congress. 

Representative Baldwin, of Michigan, believed the bill " to 
be an utter subversion of the Constitution " ; even a latitudi- 
narian construction of that instrument would not justify it. 
It embraced a plan that could be enforced by only the military 
arm. It was the precursor of the establishment of a despot- 
ism. That measure, as well as the President's plan, was 
fraught with danger. 

He lamented interference with the elective franchise and 
the denial of the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus. For 
eighteen months the war had been waged for the destruction 
of the South, not for the restoration of the Union. Did not 
wisdom, he asked, suggest that all plans of reconstruction 
which tended only to intensify hate and postpone the day of 
peace be abandoned? Speaking of the effect of Mr. Lin- 
coln's policy he observed : " That it was intended that the 
amnesty proclamation of last December would hasten the end 
of this strife, I do not believe. We are told that nearly every 
Southern paper published it, and it only nerved them to. the 
performance of more earnest deeds." The President's plan 
as well as that of Congress, he believed, were designed to per- 
petuate the present dominant party by the vote of recon- 
structed States. A considerable portion of his remarks was 
devoted to criticism of the Administration.^ 

^ Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1974-1981. * Ibid., pp. 1981-1983. 



242 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Mr. Thayer, of Pennsylvania, believed that the powers 
delegated by the people of the United States to the national 
Government were sufficient for the great work of reconstruc- 
tion, and added : " That the time has come in which Con- 
gress, in the exercise of the great powers conferred upon it, 
should settle and authoritatively declare the terms and con- 
ditions upon which the people of the rebellious districts should 
be restored to their State privileges and resume their just 
relations to the national Government, does not admit of 
doubt." People occupying territory wrested from the rebel- 
lion should be restored with the least possible delay to the 
privileges of representative government. " Congress alone 
can enact the laws which are to reconstruct the political so- 
cieties in which the fundamental principle of loyalty to the 
national Government and obedience to its laws and respect 
for its authority have been obliterated by the violence of re- 
bellion. The President of the United States cannot enact 
these laws, and it is in my opinion a reproach to Congress that 
by its inaction up to the present time it has rendered it neces- 
sary that the national Executive should be obliged by a sense 
of obligation to the public welfare to resort to temporary ex- 
pedients for the preservation of public order and the asser- 
tion of national supremacy in those districts and States which 
the valor of our soldiers has redeemed from the insulting 
domination of the rebel army." 

Executive action, he asserted, was suggested by necessity. 
" What has been done in that respect by the President I be- 
lieve to have been well done, wisely done, and patriotically 
done, and to have been demanded alike by the necessity 
of the case and for the welfare of the Republic." The ex- 
clusive right over the subject, however, belonged to Congress, 
which should relieve the President of all responsibility therein. 

Safeguards against the recurrence of similar outbreaks in 
the future should be required. He would support the meas- 



4 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 243 

ure before the House because of these safeguards or pledges. 
Unconditional and perpetual loyalty in the new governments 
in the rebellious States to that of the United States, extirpa- 
tion and perpetual prohibition of slavery and compulsory 
repudiation of the rebel debt were the chief among these. 

" The safety of the country," said he, " its future repose, 
the continuance of the Union, and the firm establishment of 
our political system imperatively demand that in the reor- 
ganization of local governments in the rebel States the founda- 
tions of such governments must rest upon the principle of sub- 
mission to the Constitution and laws of the United States. 

"... It is also necessary to guard the elective 
franchise and the privilege of holding office in those States 
against the intrusion and treachery of all who have in any 
sense been leaders in the present rebellion. For this purpose 
prudence requires that all who have held office under the 
pretended rebel government should be excluded from these 
privileges." 

The seventh section of the bill he would like to see so modi- 
fied as to declare that no debt of the pretended Confederate 
States, and no debt contracted by the State for the purpose of 
prosecuting the war against the United States or of giving 
aid to its enemies, should be recognized or paid by the State. 

It was a singular doctrine, he remarked in conclusion, that 
those who had thrown off all restraints of the Constitution 
and who for years had waged war for the purpose of over- 
throwing it should be entitled to demand its protection while 
engaged in armed hostility to it.^ 

Mr, Yeaman did not believe Congress had a right to legis- 
late away the laws and institutions of these States. The 
American people, he said, would come out of the contest with 
a better political education, an education having for its basis 
the idea that they are a nation, and he added, " a war to 
' Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2002-2006. 



244 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

enforce the theory of secession will end in an increased con- 
solidated nationality." The theory expressed in the Virginia 
and Kentucky Resolutions was the fatal blow in our political 
history. His address was in the nature of an essay in politi- 
cal science and not altogether germane to the measure under 
consideration. ^ 

" Pass a judicious enabling act," urged Mr. Longyear, 
" with proper safeguards, of which the people may avail 
themselves to organize civil governments at the very earliest 
opportunity, and it will afford a rallying point for the Union 
sentiment remaining there, and tend to foster it and nourish 
it into a healthful and vigorous existence. It will prevent 
perplexing and complicated irregularities and diversities of 
action, and tend largely to harmony and strength in our future 
deliberations. No stronger illustration of the necessity and 
propriety of immediate action need be given than the case of 
Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas. 

" The President's proclamation does not solve the diffi- 
culty. As a proclamation of amnesty, as a general outline 
or plan for organizing new State governments, as a prescrip- 
tion of safeguards and conditions precedent to such organiza- 
tion, it will ever stand as a bright and glorious page in the 
history of the present Administration. But it is incomplete 
for lack of constitutional power. That can be conferred by 
Congress alone, under the power to admit new States. 

" If we succeed [in the war] we make no conquest of terri- 
tory, because that is already ours. We simply succeed, in' 
that respect, in bringing that which is our own again under 
our control." Because of rebellion the constitutions and laws 
of those States had ceased to exist, and as slavery was estab- 
lished solely in State laws that also ceased to exist. The only 
object of a constitutional amendment was to prohibit its es- 
' Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 2008. 






RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 245 

tablishment forever. Freedom, he added, was being substi- 
tuted for slavery. In respect to slavery and the slave power 
we were in the midst of a revolution. They proved them- 
selves inimical to civil liberty, to the Constitution and to re- 
publican institutions.* 

To the remark of Fernando Wood, of New York, that 
the South could not be subdued, Ignatius Donnelly replied, 
"We are doing it!" and he added, if the system of the 
President is deficient in the machinery that will ensure 
safety " it is our duty to supply that defect. The plan of 
the President, unsupported by any action on our part, hangs 
upon too many contingencies. It may be repealed by his 
successor; it may be resisted by Congress; it may be an- 
nulled by the Supreme Court. It rests the welfare of the 
nation upon the mind of one man; it rests the whole struc- 
ture of social order upon the unstable foundation of indi- 
vidual oaths." Upon this subject Mr. Donnelly observed 
that General Jefferson Thompson, C. S. A., noted in 
passing through those regions that men consulted their 
memorandum books to see what oath they had taken last. 
Thousands of rebel dead had been found on the battle field 
with oaths of allegiance, sworn to and subscribed, in their 
pockets. Mr. Donnelly favored the bill, and if any measure 
of greater security could be found he would support that. 
He desired, as soon as it could be attained, an amendment of 
the Constitution that would prohibit slavery. 

" I am aware, Mr. Speaker," he continued, " of the great 
claims which Mr. Lincoln has upon the people of the United 
States. I recognize that popularity which accompanies him, 
and which, considering the ordeal through which he has 
passed, is little less than miraculous. I recognize that un- 
questioning faith in his honesty and ability which pervades 
all classes, and the sincere affection with which almost the 
^ Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2011-2014. 



246 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

entire population regard him. We must not underrate him 
even in our praises. He is a great man. Great not after the 
old models of the world, but with a homely and original great- 
ness. He will stand out to future ages in the history of these 
crowded and confused times with wonderful distinctness. He 
has carried a vast and discordant population safely and peace- 
fully through the greatest of political revolutions with such 
consummate sagacity and skill that while he led he appeared 
to follow; while he innovated beyond all precedent he has 
been denounced as tardy; while he struck the shackles from 
the limbs of three million slaves he has been hailed as a con- 
servative! If to adapt, persistently and continuously, just 
and righteous principles to all the perplexed windings and 
changes of human events, and to secure in the end the com- 
plete triumph of those principles, be statesmanship, then 
Abraham Lincoln is the first of statesmen. 

" If the end of the war is to be a restoration of the appear- 
ance of the old Government; a patching together of the 
broken shreds and fragments; a propping up of the fabric in 
such style that the next Administration may possibly get out 
from under it before it falls, then that proclamation may be 
found all-sufficient. But for all other purposes it will be 
utterly unavailing. It does not reach the heart of the dis- 
temper. . . . 

" We owe more than this to ourselves; we owe more than 
this to the South. We must regenerate the South." ^ 

This discriminating tribute to the character and genius of 
Mr. Lincoln was paid by no servile flatterer; it was not the 
eulogy of even a supporter of the Presidential plan of recon- 
struction; nor was it designed as a discharge of, or uttered in 
expectation of compelling, Executive favors, but appears rather 
to have been the spontaneous testimony of a keen interpreter of 
men and measures not less creditable to the insight of the 
* Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 2038. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 247 

speaker than to the subject of his remarks. Others, it is true, 
refrained from misrepresenting the President's attitude and 
cheerfully ascribed to him patriotic and enlightened motives in 
his public conduct. Mr. Donnelly alone condensed into a 
paragraph a panegyric with which the judgment of posterity 
is in complete accord. This portion of his speech is quoted 
both to show that there were men in Congress who fully 
appreciated the greatness of the President, and that criticism 
of his measures was not in many instances suggested by feel- 
ings of personal hostility. 

Very different were the remarks of Mr. Dennison, who de- 
clared that " The passage of this law will be the final gather- 
ing up of the reserved rights of States, and the last vestige 
of protection of the citizen under State constitutions will be 
taken away, and all power centralized in the General Govern- 
ment." He opposed the bill for the additional reason that it 
was intended to legalize and perpetuate the unconstitutional 
acts of the President. '' There does not exist on the earth a 
more despotic government than that of Abraham Lincoln. 
He is a despot in fact if not in name." ^ These excerpts 
sufficiently indicate the character of his invective. 

" I have offered a substitute to the bill of the committee," 
said Thaddeus Stevens, " because that does not, in my judg- 
ment, meet the evil. It partially acknowledges the rebel 
States to have rights under the Constitution, which I deny, 
as war has abrogated them all. I do not inquire what rights 
we have under it, but they have none. The bill takes for 
granted that the President may partially interfere in their civil 
administration, not as conqueror but as President of the 
United States. It adopts in some measure the idea that less 
than a majority may regulate to some extent the affairs of a 
republic." 2 The chief objection of Mr. Stevens, however, 

* Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2039-2041. 
' Ibid. p. 2041. 



248 LINCOLN'S PLAN Of^ RECONSTRUCTION 

was that it removed the opportunity of confiscating the prop- 
erty of the disloyal. 

Representative Wadsworth, of Kentucky, he said, agreed 
with him that the people of the South could plead none of the 
constitutional provisions in their defence. Whatever rights 
they possessed were those of belligerents engaged in war. 
" When we come to enforce the rights of conquest," con- 
tinued the Pennsylvania member, " we should be justified 
in insisting upon the extreme rights of war, without yield- 
ing to the mitigations dictated by modern usage with re- 
gard to belligerents originally composed of foreign nations 
engaged in war which they deemed just." Explaining 
former recommendations which in many quarters had called 
forth severe criticism, he said : " I thought that the women 
and children, the non-combatants, and those who were 
forced by the laws of their State into the armies, should 
be spared; and the property of the guilty, morally as well as 
politically guilty, only should be taken. And yet we hear a 
howl of horror from conservative gentlemen at the inhumanity 
of the proposition." He still further explained his sentiments 
on this occasion. After stating that the people of the Con- 
federate States were sovereign and acted through their rep- 
resentatives, he asserted that they had commenced and were 
continuing to wage an unjust war and therefore their private 
property was liable to confiscation. The right to take their 
property existed, but no one, he said, " advises the execution 
of the extreme right. But the right exists and ought to be 
enforced against the most guilty. To allow them to return 
with their estates untouched, on the theory that they have 
never gone out of the Union, seems to me rank injustice to 
loyal men." Of those who denied that the Confederate States 
had gone out of the Union he inquired, " What are we mak- 
ing war upon them for? For seceding; for going out of 
the Union against law. The law forbids a man to rob or 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 249 

murder, and yet robbery and murder exist dc facto but not 
de jure." Hence the Constitution does not allow the States 
to go out of the Union. He referred also in his speech to a 
resolution introduced by Mr. Schenck, of Ohio, which passed 
the House without a division and declared the Confederate 
States a public enemy, engaged in a public war.^ 

On the same day, May 2, Representative Strouse remarked 
that immediately after the disaster of Bull Run the House 
almost unanimously passed the Crittenden Resolutions, which 
declared that " This war is not waged in any spirit of oppres- 
sion, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or pur- 
pose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or estab- 
lished institutions of these States." This announcement, he 
asserted, brought volunteers, whereas now, 1864, county, State 
and Federal bounties combined could not induce men to enlist, 
and the cause of the apathy was that the war had been per- 
verted from the purpose announced in the resolutions referred 
to. The entire speech had little reference to the bill of Mr. 
Davis, but seemed rather designed, by an attack on the Ad- 
ministration, to please his Democratic constituents.^ 

Mr. Cravens said that the dominant party did not dis- 
tinguish between loyalty to the Administration and loyalty 
to the Government. The time for compromise had passed 
when the Republican party refused to accept the Crittenden 
Resolutions. That organization was in all essentials an 
abolition party. If there ever was a distinction it no longer 
existed. He cited a rather complete list of all the measures 
acted upon by Congress showing their concern for the negro ; 
he charged neglect. of the white soldier, his widow and or- 
phans; quoted from the speech of Thaddeus Stevens on the 
admission of West Virginia, and named Representative Julian 
as uttering sentiments little behind the Pennsylvania member 

* Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2041-2042. 
*Ibid., p. 2043. 



250 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

in boldness and exhibiting no more reverence for the Constitu- 
tion. The incapacity and dire wickedness of the President 
and his " courtiers " came in for a share of criticism. 

Mr. Gooch on the following day, May 3, remarked that the 
rebellion was but the military phase of the conflict of ideas 
■which began with the adoption of the Constitution. " When 
we shall have crushed the rebellion and restored peace to all 
parts of the country we shall hold this territory, not by a 
new title, but by the old, not as territory acquired by con- 
quest, but territory defended and maintained against revolt. 
. . . I can see no reason why the President, as Com- 
mander-in-Chief, should not, in the meantime, so use the 
military power as to aid and assist the loyal people of any 
one of these States in the organization of a loyal State gov- 
ernment. . . . All these acts by the President, or the 
military power under him, in thus aiding and assisting the 
loyal people in these States, impose no obligation upon Con- 
gress to recognize them until such time as it shall deem proper 
to do so, and any recognition the military power may see fit 
to give to these governments can never fix their status in the 
Union. Congress alone has the power to determine what 
government is the legitimate one in a State, and its decision 
is binding on the other departments of the Government.^ 

Mr. Perry, of New Jersey, spoke of the duration of the 
war, predicted the general bankruptcy which its great ex- 
pense would bring about, and calculated that in eleven years 
the cost of the war would equal the assessed value of prop- 
erty. 

Speaking of the Executive plan he said : " And here the 
President's design is perfectly evident, to secure a majority 
of the delegates to the nominating convention of his party, 
and to provide for his own election by the House of Repre- 
sentatives in the event of there not being an election by the 
^ Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 2071. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 251 

people. By this plan the narrow foothold maintained by our 
armies in North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Flor- 
ida, Arkansas, and elsewhere may send the pretended full 
delegations of those States to this House. Mr. Speaker, I 
denominate the whole plan a political trick worthy of the 
most adroit and unscrupulous wire-puller of our ward primary 
meetings." The State governments had not been destroyed, 
he added, " nor can they be destroyed unless the rebels are 
finally victorious, and establish their independence." ^ 

Fernando Wood said that Mexico had a republican form of 
government, and that Texas came into the Union without 
changing the character of her government except to substitute 
a governor for President and to change the titles of some of- 
ficials. Every Southern State possessed the same form of gov- 
ernment which it did before secession. If, he asserted, they 
were then republican in form, " they are so now." The Con- 
federate constitution had all the elements of republicanism. 
The bill provided that hereafter none of the States in rebellion 
should hold slaves. It did not leave to the people the right to 
regulate their domestic institutions. Is it republicanism to take 
from the people this privilege? " To impose upon them a form 
of government of your own making, under the pretext of this 
bill, would be the worst kind of tyranny, whatever the pro- 
visions of your constitution might be."^ 

He defended himself against serious charges of General 
Schenck, whom he criticised severely. These accusations, 
however, were reiterated by Hon. William D. Kelley, of 
Pennsylvania, who at this point rose to speak on the merits 
of the bill. 

The proposed measure did not meet his unqualified approval. 
It lacked some of the amendments suggested by Mr. Stevens. 
" I should like to see his distinct declaration," said Congress- 

* Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., p. 2073. 
'Ibid., p. 2074. 



252 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

man Kelley, " that ' The Confederate States are a public en- 
emy, waging an unjust war, whose injustice is so glaring that 
they have no right to claim the mitigation of the extreme 
rights of war which are accorded by modern usage to an 
enemy who has the right to consider the war a just one.' " 
He would like to see the bill of Mr. Davis provide also for 
the exclusion from Congress of all those States that seceded, 
and every part of them. 

As more immediately important, however, he would prefer 
to see included in the measure the proposition of Mr. Stevens 
respecting amendments of the Constitution; he denied the 
immortality of a State. It has its beginning, its transitions 
and may have its end. " A State may be killed, a State may 
commit suicide. An act of God, by destroying its inhab- 
itants, might extinguish a State. A State could be conquered 
and held by some strong and hostile power. The political 
people of each of those States have overthrown the State. 
Through its corporate power each State destroyed its cor- 
porate life, and no one of them exists." He also denied that 
a State could transfer to any foreign power territory within 
the jurisdiction of the United States. The Supreme Court 
had decided that the Southern States were alien enemies and 
entitled to only the rights of such.^ 

The message of the President, Representative S. S. Cox 
believed, " should be welcomed, not so much for what it is 
as for what it pretends to be. It is his first adventure beyond 
the line of force into the field of conciliation. . . . 

" To test the genuineness of this amnesty : five months have 
gone, but we see no signs of thousands of Southern citizens 
rushing to embrace this amnesty. Indeed, it is conceded that 
the rebellion is now more formidable than ever." There was 
no genuine movement toward the restoration of the seceded 
States. He would not take the oath of allegiance and swear 
' Globe, Part III., i Sess 38th Cong., p. 2078. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 253 

support of the negro policies. How could Southern men be 
expected to take the oath? Its terms provoked or irritated 
them still more. The structure, he declared, was built on the 
Emancipation Proclamation. 

The bill of Mr. Davis had the same defects. That, too, was 
based upon the one tenth system and the policy of forced 
emancipation. '' In some of its features," he said, " it is an 
improvement upon the rickety establishment proposed by the 
President. 

" . . . The emancipation act of the gentleman [Lin- 
coln] can never be reconciled with the normal control of the 
States over their domestic institutions, so all oaths to sustain 
the same are oaths to subvert the old governments. Federal 
and State. . . . The President's plan, therefore, whether 
intended or not, is an oath to encourage treason, and the plan 
of the gentleman from Maryland is a plan to consummate 
revolution. 

"... If his [the President's] plan of making one 
tenth rule in the States should succeed, then he will have 
ready at hand the electoral votes of Florida, Arkansas, Loui- 
siana, Tennessee, North Carolina, and other States. He began 
this business in Florida the other day, and the blood which 
flowed at Olustee is the result of this scheme of personal am- 
bition ! 

" There is a sort of odium historicum," proceeded Mr. Cox, 
" attached to all political test oaths. . . . They have 
been the bane and foil of good government ever since bigotry 
began and revenge ruled. You cannot make eight million 
people, nearly all in revolt at what they regard as the detest- 
able usurpations of abolition, forswear their hatred to aboli- 
tion. You force by this oath the freed negro into the very 
nostrils of the Southern man, whose submission to law you 
seek. 



254 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

" The conditions of pardon only inflame but do not quench 
rebellion. . . . 

" We may yet change the war from the diabolical purposes 
of those in power, by changing that power to other hands, and 
we are not ready to sever our Union while that hope remains." 

Precedents and analogies from both ancient and contem- 
porary history were cited to demonstrate the folly of attempt- 
ing to hold the South in her place by force. These together 
with censure of the Administration and criticism of the domi- 
nant party in Congress made up a great part of Mr. Cox's 
very long speech.^ 

Representative Boutwell, of Massachusetts, referring, May 
4, to the remarks of his colleague, Mr. Ashley, of the com- 
mittee which reported the bill, observed that " since this rebel- 
lion opened the Thirty-seventh Congress commenced its exist- 
ence and ceased to exist; that this Congress is now closing 
the fifth month of its First Session, and that up to this time no 
efficient, indeed no legislative steps whatever have been taken 
by which the Executive is to be guided in the affairs of the 
people occupying the territory that has been reclaimed from 
rebel domination. Under these circumstances I think it due 
to the country that this House, at least, should do nothing 
which conveys any reflection upon his policy unless that policy 
be clearly and manifestly in contravention of the Constitution 
or of the well-ascertained and admitted principles of the Gov- 
ernment." 

When the populous parts of Louisiana were torn from rebel 
domination, and the State of Arkansas indicated in various 
ways the growth of a sentiment of loyalty and returning 
allegiance to the General Government, the Executive had but 
one of three courses before him : either to be silent, to govern 
by military authority alone, or else to establish a civil govern- 
ment or at least to take initiatory steps toward such establish- 

^ Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2095-2102. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 255 

ment. " It was unquestionably his right and duty, in the 
absence of all legislative action, to govern these territories as 
fast and as far as they were reclaimed by military power." 

He defended both the President and General Banks, who 
had for years been consistent advocates of liberty. He then 
announced himself in favor of the bill of Mr. Davis. 

"The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens]," con- 
tinued Mr. Boutwell, '' maintains, as I understand, that these 
States are out of the Union; that their territory is alien terri- 
tory, and that we are making war against alien enemies. I 
do not admit either of these positions to be true. I feel quite 
sure that these eleven once-existing States are no longer States 
of the Union, The evidence on which I rely in support of 
this position is found first in the declaration made by the au- 
thorities of those States that they no longer exist as States 
of the American Union. Next, we find that for three years 
and more they have been resisting the authority of the Gov- 
ernment and have been carrying on a war against it. It is 
absurd to say that States or people are a part of the Govern- 
ment under the Constitution, and entitled to constitutional 
rights and privileges, when they have been carrying on war 
against the Government. 

" Nor do I admit that the people in the rebellious States are 
aliens. They are not of any other country, they are not of 
any other legal jurisdiction, they are within the jurisdiction 
of the Union. Three years ago they were a portion of this 
Union, and although they have been carrying on a war, that 
war has not thus far been successful, their independence has 
not been acknowledged by us, nor has it been recognized by 
any other nation. They, therefore, are not aliens. They are, 
to be sure, public enemies, but they are not alien enemies. 

" • . . These States as political organizations have 
by their own will ceased to exist. . . . The existence 



256 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of a State is a fact within the control of the people themselves, 
and cannot be influenced by any extraneous power whatever, 
and therefore these States have by the will of the people 
thereof as political organizations ceased to exist." 

Admitting that the Government of the United States had 
legal jurisdiction over this territory and over the people who 
occupied it, it was an absurdity, he declared, " to say that 
these States still exist and that the people there may without 
our consent elect officers and send Representatives to this body 
and Senators to the other branch of Congress." 

To the taunt of the Democrats that the war had been 
changed from a war to restore the Union to one for the pur- 
pose of emancipating the slave, Mr. Boutwell replied by a denial 
of the fact, but added that even if it were so, it was not the 
first instance of the sort in human history. Up to 1774 every 
American expected to preserve the old relations with England, 
yet within two years Independence was declared. The pend- 
ing measure, he asserted, had not elicited marked attention in 
Congress nor any great interest throughout the country, yet 
in it lay the germ of a new civilization for half a continent. 

The limitation of the elective franchise to white males did 
not meet his approval; for though the suffrage 'is not a 
natural, it is the highest political, right. Where the suf- 
frage is denied to any large number of men, that community is 
never free from the danger of intestine commotion. 

As South Carolina and Georgia were responsible for breath- 
ing into slavery the breath of life after it had everywhere been 
condemned, he would not have them again reappear in the 
Union, Florida did not deserve a place in the Union and, by 
giving the colored men local suffrage in that district, South 
Carolina, Georgia and Florida, he would invite the blacks 
thither as fast as they could be spared from the industries in 
which they were elsewhere engaged. He would not ask to 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 257 

extend this principle to loyal Northern or to border States 
with a negro population.^ 

Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, made by far the ablest Democratic 
argument against the proposed enactment. Its details as well 
as its general policy, he said, required examination. After 
stating quite fully the provisions of the bill, he continued : 

The gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Davis] facetiously entitles it "a 
bill to guaranty to certain States whose governments have been usurped 
or overthrown a republican form of government." 

At last the mask has been thrown off. At last the pretenses have all 
been laid aside. Three years of war have done their work, and the pur- 
poses and objects of the Republican party have been at last acknowl- 
edged. This bill is the consummation of its statesmanship the fruit of 
Its experience, the demonstration of its purposes. The gentleman from 
Maryland introduced it; it is understood to be distasteful to some of 
his party friends ; but it is a party measure ; it will be voted for by every 
member of the Republican organization ; it marks their policy of restora- 
tion; it defines their ideas of Union; it interprets their construction of the 
Constitution. As such I accept it. We have had double-dealing, hypoc- 
risy and fraud for the last three years. We have had false professions, 
false names, and double-faced measures. We have had armies raised, 
taxes collected, battles fought, under the pretense that the war was for 
the Union, the old Union, the Union of the Constitution. These were 
the catchwords for the patriotic people. In the secret council-chambers 
of the party they were sneered at as devices with which to ensnare the 
innocent, to deceive the ignorant, to coax the obstinate. They were to 
be discarded as soon as, in the heat of war, in the exasperation of pas- 
sion, in the exultation of victory, or in the bitterness of defeat and dis- 
aster and oppression, it would be safe to divulge the great conspiracy 
against the Union, the constitutional confederation, the principles of free 
government. 

That time has come. The veil is drawn aside. We see clearly. The 
party in possession of the powers of the Government is revolutionary. 
It seeks to use those powers to destroy the Government, to change its 
form, to change its spirit. It seeks under the forms of law to make a 
new Government, a new Union, to ingraft upon it new principles, new 
theories, and to use the powers of the law against all who will not be per- 
suaded. It is in rebellion against the Constitution ; it is in treasonable 
conspiracy against the Government. It differs in nothing from the 

* Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2102-2105. 



258 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

armed enemies except in the weapons of its warfare. They fight to over- 
throw its authority over them, while it seeks to destroy that authority 
at home. They would curtail the limits of the jurisdiction of the Federal 
Government ; it would extend those limits, but change the basis and prin- 
ciples upon which it rests. If revolt against constituted authority be a 
crime, if patriotism consist in upholding in form and spirit the Govern- 
ment our fathers made, those in power here to-day are as guilty as those 
who in the seceded States marshal armed men for the contest. 

" Revolutions move onward." That is true. But call things by their 
true names. Admit you are in revolution ; admit you are revolutionists ; 
admit that you do not desire to restore the old order ; admit that you do 
not fight to restore the Union. Take the responsibility of that position. 
Avow that you exercise the powers of the Government because you 
control them ; that you are not bound by the Constitution, but by your 
own sense of right. Avow that resistance to your schemes is not treason, 
but war. Dissolve the spell which you have woven around the hearts 
of our people by the cunning use of the words conservatism, patriotism, 
Union. And we will cease all criminations, we will hush all reproaches 
for oaths violated, pledges falsified, faith betrayed. We will meet you 
on your own ground, we will fight you with your weapons, and by the 
issue of that contest, whether of argument or of arms, we will abide. 

Am I to be told that I misrepresent the Republican party? The gen- 
tleman who has just taken his seat [Mr. Boutwell], an able and honored 
member of that party, has said in your hearing, " If I could direct the 
force of public sentiment and the policy of this Government, South 
Carolina as a State and with a name should never re-appear in this 
Union. Georgia deserves a like fate. Florida does not deserve a name 
in this Union." 

The gentleman from Maryland felt that this charge could be truthfully 
made. He sought to answer it in advance. He denied that the pro- 
visions of the bill contravened any clause of the Constitution. Where 
is the authority for it? Where is the authority to declare State govern- 
ments overthrown? Where is the authority to reconstruct them? 
Where is the authority to appoint a governor; to call a convention to 
remodel their constitutions ; to fix the qualifications of its members ; to 
prescribe the conditions of their organic law ; and until a new constitu- 
tion shall be made, to administer by Federal officers such parts of the 
old constitution and laws as the governor, or the President, or Congress 
may select? . . . 

At this point he quoted Madison on the guaranty clause, a 
subject elaborated in the Senate by Carlile, of Virginia. Mr. 
Pendleton observed that if slavery, which, with one possible 
exception, existed in all the States at the time of the adoption 



k 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 259 

of the Constitution, was not inconsistent with a republican 
form of government then it was not inconsistent with it in 
1864. 

And yet the advocates of this bill [continued Mr. Pendleton] propose 
to deprive the States of power over the question of slavery, power over 
their own indebtedness, power to regulate the elective franchise, and the 
right to hold office, under the pretense that they thereby execute the 
provision that the United States must guaranty a republican form of 
government to the States. 

The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Boutwell] has shown how he 
would execute it. South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida should never 
again appear as State [s] or in name in this Confederation. Is their 
exclusion a guarantee to them of a republican government ? 

... If Congress may insist upon the three fundamental conditions 
prescribed in this bill, ... by a parity of reasoning it ought to in- 
sist upon their incorporation into the constitution of the States remain- 
ing steadfast by the Union. If they are essential to republicanism in the 
one class of States they are equally so in all. 

. . . Gentlemen must not palter in a double sense. These acts of 
secession are either valid or they are invalid. If they are valid, they 
separated the State from the Union. If they are invalid, they are void; 
they have no effect; the State officers who act upon them are rebels to 
the Federal Government ; the States are not destroyed ; their consti- 
tutions are not abrogated ; their officers are committing illegal acts, 
for which they are liable to punishment; the States have never left the 
Union, but so soon as their officers shall perform their duties or other 
officers shall assume their places, will again perform the duties imposed 
and enjoy the privileges conferred by the Federal compact, and this not 
by virtue of a new ratification of the Constitution, nor a new admission 
by the Federal Government, but by virtue of the original ratification, and 
the constant, uninterrupted maintenance of position in the Federal Union 
since that date. 

Acts of secession are not invalid to destroy the Union, and valid to 
destroy the State governments and the political privileges of their citi- 
zens. We have heard much of the two-fold relation which citizens of the 
seceded States may hold to the Federal Government — that they may be 
at once belligerents and rebellious citizens. I believe there are some ju- 
dicial decisions to that effect. Sir, it is impossible. The Federal Gov- 
ernment may possibly have the right to elect in which relation it will deal 
with them; it cannot deal with them at one and the same time in incon- 
sistent relations. Belligerents being captured are entitled to be treated 



25o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

as prisoners of war; rebellious citizens are liable to be hanged. The 
private property of belligerents, according to the rules of modern war, 
shall not be taken without compensation; the property of rebellious citi- 
zens is liable to confiscation. Belligerents are not amenable to the local 
criminal law, nor to the jurisdiction of courts which administer it; 
rebellious citizens are, and the officers are bound to enforce the law, and 
to exact the penalty of its infraction. The seceded States are either in 
the Union or out of it. If in the Union, their constitutions are un- 
touched, their State governments are maintained; their citizens are 
entitled to all political rights, except so far as they may be deprived of 
them by the criminal law which they may have infracted. This seems 
incomprehensible to the gentleman from Maryland. In his view the 
whole State government centers in the men who administer it; so that 
when they administer it unwisely, or put it in antagonism to the Federal 
Government, the State government is dissolved, the State constitution is 
abrogated, and the State is left, in fact and in form, de jure and de facto, 
in anarchy, except so far as the Federal Government may rightfully in- 
tervene. This seems to be substantially the view of the gentleman from 
Massachusetts [Mr. Boutwell]. He enforces the same position, but he 
does not use the same language. 

. . . If by a plague or other visitation of God every officer of a 
State government should at the same moment die, so that not a single 
person clothed with official power should remain, would the State 
government be destroyed? Not at all. For the moment it would not be 
administered, but as soon as officers were elected and assumed their 
respective duties it would be instantly in full force and vigor. 

If these States are out of the Union their State governments are still 
in force unless otherwise changed. And their citizens are to the Federal 
Government as foreigners, and it has in relation to them the same rights, 
and none other, as it had in relation to British subjects in the war of 
1812, or to the Mexicans in 1846. Whatever may be the true relation of 
the seceded States, the Federal Government derives no power in relation 
to them or their citizens from the provision of the Constitution now 
under consideration, but in the one case derives all its power from the 
duty of enforcing the " Supreme law of the land; " and in the other from 
the power " to declare war." 

The gentleman [Mr. Davis] states his case too strongly. The duty 
imposed on Congress is doubtless important, but Congress has no right 
to use a means of performing it forbidden by the Constitution, no matter 
how necessary or proper it might be thought to be. But, sir, this 
doctrine is monstrous. It has no foundation in the Constitution. It 
subjects all the States to the will of Congress; it places their institutions 
at the feet of Congress. It creates in Congress an absolute unqualified 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 261 

despotism. It asserts the power of Congress in changing the State govern- 
ments to be " plenary, supreme and unlimited " — " subject only to re- 
vision by the people of the whole United States." The rights of the peo- 
ple of the State are nothing, their will is nothing. Congress first decides, 
the people of the whole Union revise. My own State of Ohio is liable at 
any moment to be called in question for her constitution. She does not 
permit negroes to vote. . . . From that decision of the Congress 
there is no appeal to the people of Ohio, but only to the people of 
Massachusetts, and New York, and Wisconsin, at the election of Rep- 
resentatives; and if a majority cannot be elected to reverse the decision, 
the people of Ohio must submit. Woe be to the day when that doctrine 
shall be established, for from its centralized despotism we will appeal to 
the sword ! 

The rights of the States, he said in conclusion, had recon- 
ciled liberty with empire, the freedom of the individual with 
increase of the public domain ; by the proposed measure these 
were all swept instantly away. It substituted " despotism for 
self-government ; despotism the more severe because vested in 
a numerous Congress elected by a people who may not feel 
the exercise of its power. ... It maintains integrity of 
territory but destroys the rights of the citizen." Finally he 
declared that he preferred separation to the unity which the 
bill would create.^ 

Debate was concluded by Henry Winter Davis, who rose 
for the purpose of perfecting the pending measure by moving 
as a substitute a bill essentially the same as that under con- 
sideration in the House; from that plan, however, it differed 
in two not unimportant particulars. First, it excluded what 
his friend Mr. Cox had objected to, the rule of one tenth, and 
required a majority to concur in forming a government. The 
other softened the operation of the clause excluding officers 
of the State and Confederate government, by saving merely 
ministerial officers and the inferior military officers; so that 
the exclusion merely affected persons of dangerous political 
influence. By an arrangement with Thaddeus Stevens, in- 

^ Globe, Part III., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 2105-2107. 



262 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

stead of having a direct vote on his substitute, a portion of it 
was proposed as a preamble to this bill, which, of course, 
would be voted on separately and take whatever fate the 
House might assign to it. With these observations Mr. 
Davis said, " I offer this as a substitute, and move the pre- 
vious question upon it." The substitute was agreed to, and 
the amendment to the preamble adopted, the preamble itself 
being rejected. By 73 yeas to 59 nays, the bill passed the 
House, May 4, 1864.* 

This important measure authorized the President, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint for each 
of the States declared in rebellion a provisional governor, with 
pay and emoluments not to exceed that of a brigadier-general 
of volunteers, and who was to be charged with the civil admin- 
istration of such State until a government was recognized as 
existing therein. As soon as military resistance to Federal 
authority had been suppressed, and the people had sufficiently 
returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws, 
it was made the duty of the governor to direct the United 
States marshal to enroll all white male citizens of the United 
States, resident in the State, in their respective counties; and 
wherever a majority of them took the oath of allegiance, the 
loyal people of the States were, by proclamation, to be in- 
vited by the governor to elect delegates to a convention to act 
upon the reestablishment of a State government, the proclama- 
tion to prescribe the details of the election. Qualified electors 
in the army could vote at the headquarters of their respective 
commands. No person who had held or exercised any civil, 
military, State or Confederate office under the rebel occupa- 
tion, and who had voluntarily borne arms against the United 
States, could either vote or be eligible as a delegate. The con- 
vention was required to insert in the constitution the follow- 
ing provisions : 

* Globe, Part III., 1 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 2108. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 263 

First. No person who has held or exercised any office, civil or mili- 
tary, except offices merely ministerial and military offices below colonel, 
State or Confederate, under the usurping power, shall vote for or be a 
member of the Legislature, or Governor. 

Second. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, and the freedom 
of all persons is guaranteed in said State. 

Third. No debt, State or Confederate, created by or under the sanction 
of the usurping power, shall be recognized or paid by the State. 

Upon the adoption of such a constitution by the con- 
vention and its ratification by the voters of the State the pro- 
visional governor should so certify to the President, who, 
after obtaining the assent of Congress, was empowered by 
proclamation to recognize the government so established, and 
none other, as the constitutional government of the State; 
from the date of such recognition, and not before. Senators 
and Representatives as well as electors for President and 
Vice-President could be legally chosen in such State. Until 
reorganization the provisional governor was to enforce the 
laws of the Union, and of the State before rebellion. 

The remaining provisions were as follows : 

Section 12 declared that " all persons held to involuntary 
servitude or labor in the States referred to, are emancipated 
and discharged therefrom, and they and their posterity are 
declared to be forever free. And if any such persons or their 
posterity shall be restrained of liberty, under pretense of any 
claim to such service or labor, the courts of the United States 
shall, on habeas corpus, discharge them." 

Section 13 provided that " if any person declared free by 
this or any law of the United States, or any proclamation of 
the President, be restrained of liberty, with intent to be held 
in or reduced to involuntary servitude or labor, the person con- 
victed before a court of competent jurisdiction of such act 
shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,500, and be 
imprisoned not less than five nor more than twenty years." 

By section 14 it was declared that " every person who shall 



264 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

hereafter hold or exercise any office, civil or military, except 
offices merely ministerial, and military offices below the grade 
of colonel, in the rebel service, State or Confederate, is de- 
clared not to be a citizen of the United States." ^ 

On the following day the proposed measure came up in the 
Senate, was read twice by its title and referred to the Com- 
mittee on Territories. On May 27 Mr. Wade reported the 
bill with amendments, and on June 30 succeeding moved to 
postpone all prior orders and proceed to its consideration. 
His motion, however, was not agreed to, and it was not till 
July I, when the session was drawing rapidly to a close, that 
its discussion began. To save time the amendments proposed 
by the committee were voted down. Senator Brown, of Mis- 
souri, believed that the subject of reconstruction could and 
should be postponed to a later day, and offered for the bill, by 
way of amendment, a substitute which declared incapable of 
voting " for electors of President or Vice-President of the 
United States, or of electing Senators or Representatives in 
Congress," until the rebellion was abandoned, the inhabitants 
of all those States hitherto proclaimed in a state of insurrec- 
tion. That question he regarded as the necessity of the hour.^ 

Mr. Wade hoped this amendment would not prevail ; there 
was nothing, he asserted, in the argument that sufficient time 
did not remain for its careful consideration, because it was 
early and thoroughly debated in the House and had been 
fully discussed by the Senate Committee. It was five months 
on their desks and the attention of Senators had often been 
called to it. On Republicans at least its consideration had 
frequently been urged by himself. More than ordinary care 
had been taken in this matter, and if the bill was not then 
understood it never would be. 

The question would arise in the ensuing campaign. Sen- 

' Globe, Part IV., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 3448-3449- 
* Ibid., p. 3449- 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 265 

ators, he said, had been refused admission to Congress, and 
the principles on which they would be received should be de- 
clared. They were announced in the bill which had passed the 
House. It protected the Government against Confederate 
sympathizers and guarded the interests of loyal Southerners 
during the period of transition. 

The status of the seceded States was a question upon which 
men differed widely. It was a question to be ascertained and 
declared by Congress, " for the Executive ought not to be per- 
mitted to handle this great question to his own liking. It 
does not belong, under the Constitution, to the President to 
prescribe the rule, and it is a base abandonment of our own 
powers and our own duties to cast this great principle upon 
the decision of the executive branch of the Government. 
. . . I know very well that the President from the best 
motives undertook to fix a rule upon which he would admit 
these States back into the Union. It was not upon any prin- 
ciple of republicanism; it would not have guarantied to the 
States a republican form of government, because he prescribed 
the rule to be that when one tenth of the population would 
take a certain oath and agree to come back into the Union 
they might come in as States. When we consider that in 
the light of American principle, to say the least of it, it was 
absurd. The idea that a State shall take upon itself the great 
privilege of self-government when there are only one tenth 
of the people that can stand by the principle is most anti- 
republican, anomalous, and entirely subversive of the great 
principles that underlie all our State governments and the 
General Government. Majorities must rule, and until ma- 
jorities be found loyal and trustworthy for State government, 
they must be governed by a stronger hand. . . . 

"... I hold that once a State of this Union, always 
a State; that you cannot by wrong and violence displace the 
rights of anybody or disorganize the State." It was mar- 



266 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

vellous to him how gentlemen could fancy that States for- 
feited their rights because more or less of the people had gone 
off into rebellion, and he added, " This bill proceeds upon that 
idea and discards absolutely the notion that States may lose 
their rights and that they may be abrogated and may be 
reduced to the condition of Territories. It denies any such 
thing as that. No sound principle can be adopted that war- 
rants any such thing." 

Noticing the imposition of conditions on the admission or 
on the readmission of a State, he remarked that this feature 
of the bill would probably receive more criticism than any 
other, and declared, " that the great Union party of the 
country are altogether convinced that slavery mixed up in 
a Government is so unsafe, so liable to overthrow that it 
cannot be admitted as an element in a State government. 
. . . Therefore this bill has taken special pains to say 
that the new government shall, in its constitution, proclaim 
emancipation as a condition upon which it shall be permitted 
to come into the Union." There was a time, he admitted, 
when it would have been deemed unconstitutional in Con- 
gress to prescribe any particular principle for a constitution 
when a State was seeking to come into the Union. " We 
have done so, however," he asserted, " in every State that 
we have ever admitted," and yet perhaps the question was 
never entirely settled. " Would it be wise for us," he asked, 
" in admitting States back into this Union to permit them 
to come with the very element that carried them out, with 
the very seeds of destruction which had destroyed them 
already? The framers of this bill," he continued, "have 
sedulously shut it out, and made it a condition on which the 
seceded States shall come back that it shall be a fundamental 
principle of their constitution that slavery is excluded." 

The amendment of Senator Brown he characterized as a 
bare negative; it did not inform the people of the seceded 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 267 

States upon what principle they were to be again admitted 
into the Union.^ 

Mr. Carlile, of Virginia, observed on entering into the dis- 
cussion that everything the bill proposed to do in the way of 
remedying existing evils would be accomplished by adopting 
the amendment offered by the Senator from Missouri. The 
provisions of the bill were not to be enforced and were not 
to have any life until after the suppression of the rebellion, 
and, therefore, there could be no pressing necessity for action 
at that time, when a large majority of Senators expected in 
three or four days to leave Washington for their homes. 
Senator Wade interrupted him to point out that there was 
provided a military governor whose duties could be performed 
in any stage of the rebellion, from the time Federal forces 
obtained a foothold in any State until it was in the Union 
again. The Virginia Senator agreed with Mr. Wade as to 
the extent of the President's power in the matter, and in the 
belief that once a State in the Union always a State; but the 
bill, he said, not only maintained that State governments were 
overthrown, but so far as it could do so, recognized and 
assumed the right to overthrow the State governments if that 
work was not already accomplished. If the President had 
not the right to prescribe rules for the return of rebellious 
States, where was the constitutional provision which au- 
thorized Congress to do so? The title of the bill was an 
insult, he declared, to the understanding of every enlightened 
man in the nation and the bill itself one of the most revolu- 
tionary that ever was proposed in a deliberative body claim- 
ing to be the representatives of a free people. 

The question mooted in Congress forty years before, he 
continued, was insignificant compared to the present. That 
was a proposition to impose upon the inhabitants of a Terri- 
tory seeking admission into the Union a restriction upon their 
* Globe, Part IV., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp 3448-3450. 



268 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

right of self-government when they became a State. After 
one of the most exhaustive and learned debates that ever 
graced the Capitol of the nation that assumption for Congress 
was abandoned. It was permitted to rest as the settled law 
of the land that Congress had no power to impose limitations 
affecting the right of the people of a State to regulate their 
own domestic affairs, even when sought to be applied to the 
inhabitants of a Territory seeking admission to the Union. 
This continued the settled action of Congress until reversed 
at the preceding session by assuming to create an independent 
State out of a portion of the Commonwealth which he repre- 
sented. 

" No State can have a Republican form of government," 
he declared, " no State has a republican government, when 
that government, no matter what are its provisions, is pre- 
scribed to them by another outside of their limits. A repub- 
lican form of government must emanate and emanate alone 
from the people that are to be governed. It belongs not to 
the Congress of the United States; it belongs not to the 
thirty-three States of this Union to prescribe for the smallest 
State within its folds a constitution or form of government. 
If you have a right to impose a limitation upon this power as 
to one subject of domestic legislation you have a right to 
impose it upon every subject. If you have a right to make 
one provision of a constitution for a people you have the 
right to make the entire instrument itself." 

An interruption of his argument by Mr. Wade drew from 
the Virginia Senator a query rather embarrassing to the Ohio 
statesman. " Where," asked Carlile, " does the Senator de- 
rive the power to appoint a governor for a State, a State which 
he acknowledges to be in existence, a State government that he 
acknowledges to be in existence, a State government that he 
acknowledges it to be his duty to protect and maintain ? By 
what provision of the Constitution does the Senator derive 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 269 

the authority to appoint for such a State an executive head ? " 
Mr. Wade repHed that when the Constitution imposed the 
duty of guaranteeing a repubHcan form of government it 
conferred the power to do so, and he in turn inquired, " Is 
not that good law? " " No, sir,'' answered CarHle, who pro- 
ceeded : " Now, Mr. President, I will satisfy the Senator him- 
self, I think; and really it is not necessary for me to attempt 
to satisfy him, for he is too good a lawyer not to know the 
meaning of the word ' guaranty.' What is it ? Does the 
authority to ' guaranty to each State in this Union a republi- 
can form of government ' authorize this Union to set up a 
government, to create a government, or to make a govern- 
ment? Is the maker of a note the man who guaranties its 
payment? There is no man in the Senate who knows better 
the definition and legal significance of the word ' guaranty ' 
than the Senator from Ohio, and none, I am sure, is more 
familiar, too, with the power that was intended to be conferred 
by this provision of the Constitution." After admitting that 
he would bring the power of the Government to bear on a 
faction who undertook to establish a monarchical form of gov- 
ernment, Mr. Wade put this hypothetical case : " Suppose 
now that we have conquered them and the people are still 
bent on their monarchy, shall we not guaranty a republican 
government to them by putting one over them? " " If the 
Senator be right," answered Carlile, " Mr. Madison, the au- 
thor of the Constitution, was wrong." He then quoted from 
the forty-third number of the Federalist: 

" To guaranty to every State in the Union a republican form of 
government ; to protect each of them against invasion ; and on appli- 
cation of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature 
cannot be convened), against domestic violence." 

In a confederacy founded on republican principles and composed of 
republican members, the superintending government ought clearly to 
possess authority to defend the system against aristocratic or monarchical 
innovations. 



270 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

"The very case put by Senator Wade," observed Carlile; 
" and how it is to be done is stated : " 

The more intimate the nature of such a Union may be, the greater in- 
terest have the members in the political institutions of each other; and 
the greater right to insist that the forms of government under which the 
compact was entered into should be substantially maintained. ... It 
may possibly be asked, what need there could be of such a precaution, and 
whether it may not become a pretext for alterations in the State govern- 
ments, without the concurrence of the States themselves. These ques- 
tions admit of ready answers. If the interposition of the General Govern- 
ment should not be needed, the provision for such an event will be a 
harmless superfluity only in the Constitution. But who can say what 
experiments can be produced by the caprice of particular States, by the 
ambition of enterprising leaders, or by the intrigues and influence of 
foreign powers? To the second question it may be answered that if the 
General Government should interpose by virtue of this constitutional 
authority, it will be, of course, bound to pursue the authority. But the 
authority extends no further than to a guaranty of a republican form 
of government, which supposes a preexisting government of the form 
which is to be guarantied. 

Sustained in his position by Madison's commentary Car- 
lile resumed: "Now, sir, is the Senator answered? . . . 
It is not claimed or pretended, I suppose, by the Senator from 
Ohio, or by any advocate of this bill, that under any other pro- 
vision of the Constitution can a pretext be afforded for the 
assertion of such a power as this bill proposes to assert." To 
Senator Wilkinson's inquiry, what would the Government of 
the United States do if the people of South Carolina deter- 
mined that they would not have a republican form of gov- 
ernment in that State, the Virginia Senator answered: 

" I would have the Government of the United States do 
nothing that it has not the power under the Constitution to 
do, because I believe that the Government of the United States 
is a Government of limited powers. I believe it to be its 
duty under the grant of power in the Constitution to guaranty 
the existence of a preexisting republican government. That 
government existed in South Carolina; the people have not 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 271 

determined, at least before this war they had not determined, 
to have any other than a republican form of government. 
We had recognized that government as a republican form of 
government by the recognition of the State in all its depart- 
ments and the admission of all its national representatives. 
It is made the duty of the Government of the United States, 
not of Congress; and I desire to call the attention of the 
Senator to that, because it bears upon his assumption for Con- 
gress of power which does not belong to the Executive. It 
is not alone the duty of Congress to guaranty a republican 
form of government to the people of the several States; the 
extent of that guarantee is not limited alone to the means 
which Congress may employ; but the words of the Constitu- 
tion are ' the United States shall guaranty.' Hence every 
department of the Government is equally bound; and Con- 
gress being the legislative branch of course participates to a 
greater extent in the discharge of that duty." 

After a discussion with Mr. Clark, Carlile proceeded in his 
argument : " But, sir, the Senator from Ohio says the Union 
is to be preserved. So say I. Upon what principle are these 
States to come back into the Union? The people, says the 
Senator from Ohio, will meet you with that inquiry. Sir, 
when was ever such an inquiry suggested to the brain of any 
loyal man in this Union? When was such an inquiry ever 
put? Never until after a policy different from that which 
characterized the commencement of this struggle was entered 
upon by the party in power. All said the Union was to be 
restored; all accepted the struggle as the use of the military 
power of the Government in the restoration of the Union. 
What Union ? The Union of the Constitution. The Union 
into which new States are to be admitted. It is not into * a 
Union ' but into ' this Union ' that the States are admitted. 
What Union? The Union of the Constitution, none other; 
and he who seeks to preserve the Union can only do it by an 



272 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

observance of the Constitution and of the constitutional means 
to restore it, not reconstruct it. 

"... In this Union, created by this Constitution, 
of limited and delegated powers, all prescribed and written in 
the instrument, you propose to exercise your legislative power 
by usurping the rights and liberties of the people, a power 
which all the people you represent could not use or could not 
exert without the destruction of the Union which the Consti- 
tution formed. There is no power in this Government, there 
is no power in the parties to this Government, there is no 
power in all the States of this Union to prescribe a constitu- 
tion for the little State of Rhode Island. If every other State 
in the Union, the adhering as well as the rebellious States, if 
every man, woman, and child in them were to meet and pre- 
scribe a constitution for the people of Rhode Island, they 
would have no power or authority to do so under the Union; 
and tell me where the people's representatives derive the power 
to do that which all the people in their collective capacity, save 
the small minority which constitutes that State, cannot do ? " * 

Mr. Carlile emphasized the fact that the bill under consid- 
eration was not a war measure. In a running argument with 
several Senators he showed both a ready and comprehensive 
knowledge of the Constitution and made some telling points 
against the bill as well as against the radical tendencies in 
Congress. His speech was, perhaps, the very ablest delivered 
by any Senator in opposition to the proposed measure. At 
its conclusion Mr. Brown's amendment was agreed to. 

An amendment offered by Charles Sumner to enact the 
Emancipation Proclamation into a law was rejected by a vote 
of 21 to II. The Massachusetts statesman did not wish, he 
said, to see the edict of freedom " left to float on a Presidential 
proclamation." ^ 

' Globe, Part IV., i Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 34SI-34S3. 
*lbld., p. 3460. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 273 

The bill concerning States in insurrection against the 
United States then passed the Senate by 26 yeas to 3 nays.^ 
When the vote was taken 20 Senators were absent. On the 
succeeding day, July 2, 1864, a message announced the dis- 
agreement of the House to the Senate amendment and re- 
quested a committee of conference. A subsequent motion of 
Mr. Wade that the Senate recede from its amendment and 
agree to the bill of the House was carried after some discus- 
sion by a vote of 18 to 14, thus passing the bill on the same 
day.* The names of Doolittle, Henderson, Ten Eyck and 
Trumbull voting with the Democrats in opposition fore- 
shadowed that division in the Republican ranks which after- 
wards occurred. 

The history of this famous bill from the moment of its 
passage by Congress until the publication a week later of the 
President's proclamation concerning it is best related in the 
Life of Mr. Lincoln by his private secretaries, Messrs. Nicolay 
and Hay. These writers possessed an unusual opportunity 
for ascertaining the sentiments of the President upon nearly 
every question of public interest. 

" Congress," says the diary of Mr. Hay, " was to adjourn 
at noon on the Fourth of July; the President was in his room 
at the Capitol signing bills, which were laid before him as 
they were brought from the two Houses. When this im- 
portant bill was placed before him he laid it aside and went 
on with the other work of the moment. Several prominent 
members entered in a state of intense anxiety over the fate 
of the bill. Mr. Sumner and Mr. Boutwell, while their ner- 
vousness was evident, refrained from any comment. Zacha- 
riah Chandler, who was unabashed in any mortal presence, 
roundly asked the President if he intended to sign the bill. 
The President replied : ' This bill has been placed before me 

* Globe, Part IV., I Sess. 38th Cong., p. 3461. 
'Ibid., p. 3491- 



274 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

a few moments before Congress adjourns. It is a matter of 
too much importance to be swallowed in that way.' ' If it is 
vetoed,' cried Mr. Chandler, ' it will damage us fearfully in 
the Northwest. The important point is that one prohibiting 
slavery in the reconstructed States.' Mr. Lincoln said: 
' That is the point on which I doubt the authority of Congress 
to act.' ' It is no more than you have done yourself,' said 
the Senator. The President answered : ' I conceive that I 
may in an emergency do things on military grounds which - 
cannot be done constitutionally by Congress.' Mr. Chandler, 
expressing his deep chagrin, went out, and the President, ad- 
dressing the members of the Cabinet who were seated with 
him, said : ' I do not see how any of us now can deny and 
contradict what we have always said, that Congress has no 
constitutional power over slavery in the States.' Mr. Fes- 
senden expressed his entire agreement with this view. ' I 
have even had my doubts,' he said, * as to the constitutional 
efficacy of your own decree of emancipation, in those cases 
where it has not been carried into effect by the actual advance 
of the army.' 

" The President said : ' This bill and the position of these 
gentlemen seem to me, in asserting that the insurrectionary 
States are no longer in the Union, to make the fatal admission 
that States, whenever they please, may of their own motion 
dissolve their connection with the Union. Now we cannot 
survive that admission, I am convinced. If that be true, I 
am not President ; these gentlemen are not Congress. I have 
laboriously endeavored to avoid that question ever since it first 
began to be mooted, and thus to avoid confusion and disturb- 
ance in our own councils. It was to obviate this question that 
I earnestly favored the movement for an amendment to the 
Constitution abolishing slavery, which passed the Senate and 
failed in the House. I thought it much better, if it were pos- 
sible, to restore the Union without the necessity of a violent 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 275 

quarrel among its friends as to whether certain States have 
been in or out of the Union during the war — a merely meta- 
physical question, and one unnecessary to be forced into dis- 
cussion.' 

"Although every member of the Cabinet agreed with the 
President, when, a few minutes later, he entered his carriage 
to go home, he foresaw the importance of the step he had re- 
solved to take and its possibly disastrous consequences to him- 
self. When some one said to him that the threats made by the 
extreme radicals had no foundation, and that people would 
not bolt their ticket on a question of metaphysics, he an- 
swered : 'If they choose to make a point upon this, I do not 
doubt that they can do harm. They have never been friendly 
to me. At all events, I must keep some consciousness of 
being somewhere near right. I must keep some standard or 
principle fixed within myself.' " * 

A perusal of the preceding abridgment of debates shows 
clearly that the bill was designed by Congress as a measure 
of reconstruction and intended by many of its leading advo- 
cates as a rebuke of the President. He was not, however, a 
statesman whom even the deliberate censure of a coordinate 
branch of Government could hurry into an act of rashness; 
he had never been precipitate; indeed, the burden of radical 
criticism was that Mr. Lincoln was provokingly slow. This 
was the opinion which Charles Sumner expressed in confi- 
dential correspondence with his English friends^ and which 
Secretary Chase entered in the pages of his diary.* The 
President was, it is true, the most cautious of men, and the 
fact goes far to explain the absence during his eventful 
administration of even a single serious blunder; the dis- 

* Diary of John Hay, quoted in Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX. 
pp. 120-122. 

* Pierce's Memoir of Sumner, Vol. IV. pp. 57, 60, 83, 84, 106, 108, 130, etc. 

* Shuckers' Life of Chase, pp. 44on, 442, 453, 495. 



276 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

covery of a gross error of judgment seldom or never rewarded 
the researches of his ablest critics. Though his modesty was 
scarcely less than his prudence, he entertained a just concep- 
tion of the dignity of his office; long reflection upon consti- 
tutional questions, which made him familiar with the extent 
of executive power, taught him likewise to recognize those 
limitations which the fundamental law had imposed upon leg- 
islative action. Another characteristic which made him a 
formidable adversary in every controversy was a constant 
purpose to be always, as he expressed it himself, " somewhere 
near right." 

The measure had been so long under consideration that 
none of its provisions could have taken him by surprise, and 
we are justified in concluding that when the bill was presented 
for his approval he had already determined on his course of 
action. Indeed there is evidence that some of his supporters 
in Congress had written to their friends in Louisiana predict- 
ing the very fate that afterward befell the bill. Their outline 
of the President's course admits of no other explanation than 
that he had communicated to them his intentions respecting 
it. The progress of the measure in the Senate was to be so 
retarded that the adjournment of Congress would relieve him 
of the necessity of exercising the veto, and that is precisely 
what happened. In the very last hour of the session it was 
submitted for his approval; his disposal of the bill on that 
occasion has already been noticed; his approval was withheld 
and Congress rose before the expiration of the ten days which 
would enact the bill into a law without his signature. Though 
an interested view had not been overlooked, he disregarded in 
discharge of his duty every personal consequence of the im- 
portant step which he purposed to take. His hostility to the 
measure had long been suspected, but when knowledge of his 
failure to approve it had become a certainty the anger of the 
more radical members of his party became extreme. They 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 277 

had clearly been outwitted by the President and many of them, 
eager for retaliation, returned to their homes meditating 
schemes of revenge. 

For the present, at least, anything like adequate discipline of 
Mr. Lincoln was not within their power, for the Baltimore 
convention, which renominated him for the Presidency, had 
adjourned nearly a month before. This at least was secure. 
His election, though not entirely a foregone conclusion, was 
reasonably assured; few of the discomfited members even 
imagined the thought of injuring their party to embarrass the 
President. It is easy to believe, however, that they intended 
such criticism of his policy as would be consistent with party 
success. But even here he resolved to dispute with them a 
field of operations which they believed entirely their own. The 
President, it is true, could not, even if so inclined, justify his 
conduct in person before the voters of every State in the 
Union ; he could, however, and did forestall expected criticism 
from Congressmen by publishing a proclamation vindicating 
his " pocket " veto, thus destroying whatever hope remained 
to radical Republicans of diminishing his popularity by ascrib- 
ing to him base or selfish motives for opposing the sense of 
the Legislative department of Government. As on other 
critical occasions so on this he found no precedent to guide 
him, but with characteristic firmness proceeded deliberately 
to establish one. When some of the Congressmen reached 
their States they found their constituents already pondering 
the proclamation of July 8, 1864. Its importance requires 
that it be quoted in full : 

Whereas, at the late session, Congress passed a bill to " guarantee to 
certain States, whose governments have been usurped or overthrown, 
a republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed ; 

And whereas the said bill was presented to the President of the United 
States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjourn- 
ment of said session, and was not signed by him ; 

And whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for 



278 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

restoring the States in rebellion to their proper practical relation in 
the Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that subject, 
and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the people for their 
consideration : 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
do proclaim, declare, and make known, that, while I am (as I was in De- 
cember last, when by proclamation I propounded a plan for restoration) 
unprepared, by a formal approval of this bill, to be inflexibly committed 
to any single plan of restoration ; and, while I am also unprepared to de- 
clare that the free- State constitutions and governments already adopted 
and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside and held for 
naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who have set 
up the same as to further effort, or to declare a constitutional competency 
in Congress to abolish slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely 
hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery 
throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully satisfied 
with the system for restoration contained in the bill as one very proper 
plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to adopt it, and that I 
am, and at all times shall be, prepared to give the Executive aid and 
assistance to such people, so soon as the military resistance to the United 
States shall have been suppressed in any such State, and the people 
thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the Con- 
stitution and laws of the United States, in which cases Military Governors 
will be appointed, with directions to proceed according to the bill/ 

This unexpected publication was very differently received 
by the various elements composing the Republican party; a 
large majority of those acting with that organization still con- 
fided in Mr. Lincoln; by the radical wing, however, he was 
sharply censured. Notwithstanding the necessity for harmony 
in the approaching campaign two of the boldest leaders, dis- 
regarding every consideration of prudence, arraigned the 
President in language which for severity was never surpassed 
by the invectives of his ablest political opponents. In the en- 
tire experience of the Republic no Executive had ever assumed 
to reject those provisions in a legislative measure which he 
disliked and adopt those that were acceptable. This is pre- 
cisely what Mr. Lincoln did, and the reasons for his action he 

* Letters and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 545; Mc- 
Pherson's Pol. Hist, pp. 318-319. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 279 

declared to the people with a confidence which forcibly recalls 
the direction of Andrew Jackson to the editor of his official 
organ : " Speak out to the people, sir, and tell them that in- 
stead of supporting me and my policy Congress is engaged in 
President-making." There was, however, this difference: 
Abraham Lincoln addressed the people directly and ventured 
no criticism of their representatives. Like his more impulsive 
though not less popular predecessor he was not deceived in 
the reliance which he placed in the patriotic instincts of the 
multitude, which cared little for nice metaphysical distinc- 
tions; by the masses of the people he was trusted to the 
end. 

By Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin F. Wade, chief au- 
thors of the bill, its progress had been watched with feverish 
anxiety; when convinced that their labor was lost they be- 
came greatly agitated and made no effort to conceal their 
indignation at the conduct of the President. Their joint pro- 
test, printed in the New York Tribune of August 5, was, per- 
haps, the most bitter attack made upon Mr. Lincoln during his 
Presidential career. Their fierce manifesto, addressed " To 
the supporters of the Government," declares that the writers 
had " read without surprise, but not without indignation, the 
proclamation of the President of the 8th of July, 1864. 

" The supporters of the Administration are responsible to 
the country for its conduct; and it is their right and duty to 
check the encroachments of the Executive on the authority of 
Congress, and to require it to confine itself to its proper 
sphere." 

The paper then related the history of the bill. Its treat- 
ment by the President, they declared, indicated a persistent 
though unavowed purpose to defeat the will of the people by 
the Executive perversion of the. Constitution. They insin- 
uated that only the lowest personal motives could have dictated 
this action. " The President," they said, " by preventing this 



28o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of the 
rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition. 

" If those votes turn the balance in his favor, is it to be 
supposed that his competitor, defeated by such means, will 
acquiesce ? 

" If the rebel majority assert their supremacy in those 
States, and send votes which elect an enemy of the Govern- 
ment, will we not repel his claims? 

" And is not that civil war for the Presidency inaugurated 
by the votes of the rebel States ? 

" Seriously impressed with these dangers. Congress, ' the 
proper constitutional authority/ formally declared that there 
are no State governments in the rebel States, and provided 
for their erection at a proper time; and both the Senate and 
the House of Representatives rejected the Senators and 
Representatives chosen under the authority of what the 
President calls the free constitution and government of Ar- 
kansas. 

" The President's proclamation ' holds for naught ' this 
judgment, and discards the authority of the Supreme Court, 
and strides headlong toward the anarchy his proclamation of 
the 8th of December inaugurated. 

" If electors for President be allowed to be chosen in either 
of those States, a sinister light will be cast on the motives 
which induced the President to ' hold for naught ' the will of 
Congress rather than his government in Louisiana and Ar- 
kansas. 

" The judgment of Congress which the President defies 
was the exercise of an authority exclusively vested in Con- 
gress by the Constitution, to determine what is the established 
government in a State, and in its own nature and by the 
highest judicial authority binding on all other departments of 
the Government." 

They ridiculed the President's expressed hope that the con- 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 281 

stitutional amendment abolishing slavery might be adopted. 
" We curiously inquire," continue Messrs. Wade and Davis, 
" on what his expectation rests, after the vote of the House of 
Representatives at the recent session, and in the face of the 
political complexion of more than enough of the States to 
prevent the possibility of its adoption within any reasonable 
time; and why he did not indulge his sincere hopes with so 
large an installment of the blessing as his approval of the bill 
would have secured ? 

" A more studied outrage on the legislative authority of the 
people has never been perpetrated. 

" Congress passed a bill; the President refused to approve 
it, and then by proclamation puts as much of it in force as he 
sees fit, and proposes to execute those parts by officers un- 
known to the laws of the United States, and not subject to the 
confirmation of the Senate. 

" The bill directed the appointment of provisional govern- 
ors by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. 

" The President, after defeating the law, proposes to ap- 
point, without law and without the advice and consent of the 
Senate, military governors for the rebel States ! 

" He has already exercised this dictatorial usurpation in 
Louisiana, and defeated the bill to prevent its limitation." 

Scarcely an expression of the proclamation, which was ex- 
amined in detail, escaped its share of censure or of ridicule. 
To suppose that the President was ignorant of the contents 
of the bill was out of the question, for it had been discussed, 
they asserted, during more than a month in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, by which it was passed as early as the 4th of 
May. It passed the Senate in absolutely the form in which it 
came from the House. Indeed, at the President's request, a 
draft of a bill substantially the same in material points, and 
almost identical in those features objected to by the proclama- 



282 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

tion, was submitted for his consideration during the winter 
of 1 862- 1 863. 

The " Protest " included also a sharp contrast between the 
Executive plan of December 8, 1863, and that embodied in 
the bill which had passed Congress. That measure, said 
Messrs. Wade and Davis, required a majority of the voters to 
establish a State government, the proclamation was satisfied 
with one tenth; " the bill requires one oath, the proclamation 
another; the bill ascertains voters by registering, the procla- 
mation by guess; the bill exacts adherence to existing terri- 
torial limits, the proclamation admits of others; the bill gov- 
erns the rebel States by law, equalizing all before it, the 
proclamation commits them to the lawless discretion of mili- 
tary governors and provost marshals; the bill forbids electors 
for President (in the rebel States), the proclamation and 
defeat of the bill threaten us with civil war for the admission 
or exclusion of such votes. ..." 

This arraignment of the President's course concluded with 
the language of admonition, if not indeed of absolute menace : 
" The President has greatly presumed on the forbearance 
which the supporters of his Administration have so long prac- 
tised, in view of the arduous conflict in which we are engaged, 
and the reckless ferocity of our political opponents. 

" But he must understand that our support is of a cause, 
and not of a man; that the authority of Congress is para- 
mount and must be respected; that the whole body of the 
Union men of Congress will not submit to be impeached by 
him of rash and unconstitutional legislation; and if he wishes 
our support, he must confine himself to his Executive duties, 
— to obey and execute, not make the laws, — to suppress by 
arms armed rebellion, and leave political reorganization to 
Congress. 

" If the supporters of the Government fail to insist on this, 
they become responsible for the usurpations which they fail 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 283 

to rebuke, and are justly liable to the indignation of the people 
whose rights and security, committed to their keeping, they 
sacrifice, 

" Let them consider the remedy for these usurpations, and, 
having found it, fearlessly execute it." * 

The authors of this remarkable paper were eminent in the 
councils of their party and stood high in the estimation of 
Union men everywhere. Senator Wade was distinguished 
no less for his physical than for his moral courage — • qualities 
impaired somewhat, it is true, by a temper fierce and vin- 
dictive. Henry Winter Davis, whose zeal for civil lib- 
erty will constitute his best claim to the gratitude of 
posterity, possessed literary gifts scarcely surpassed by any 
statesman then in public life. Though treated with extreme 
fairness, not to say generosity, by the President, he pursued 
toward the Administration a course of consistent hostility. 
This opposition, which even Mr. Lincoln's tact could never 
disarm, has been ascribed to disappointment at his failure to 
obtain a place in the Cabinet. While the selection of Mont- 
gomery Blair from his own State of Maryland may have been 
a cause of estrangement, a sense of what Mr. Davis regarded 
as public duty contributed, doubtless, to intensify this feeling, 
which led him ultimately to think the President scarcely en- 
titled to courteous treatment. With the Ohio Senator the 
pitiless maxim, vae victis, had an undoubted influence. Both 
were gentlemen of wide experience and acknowledged ability, 
and yet their vigorous and fearless arraignment of the Presi- 
dent revealed an astonishing lack of political sagacity. They 
inquired, for example, on what foundation he rested his ex- 
pectation of an adoption of the constitutional amendment 
abolishing slavery. The incorporation, soon after, of such 
a provision in the fundamental law shows their want of 
insight into the tendencies of the times. The fire of the 

*Ann. Cycl., 1864, pp. 307-31011. 



284 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

prophet, indeed, was present in the protest; his inspiration 
was altogether wanting. Their absurd assertion that the 
electoral votes of Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee were 
the prime consideration with the President must be attributed 
to the passion rather than to the reason of his critics, for 
few men of that generation were more familiar with the 
Constitution in all its relations. Better than most of their 
readers they knew that the duty of counting such votes was 
entrusted not to a possibly interested Executive, but to a 
joint convention of both Houses. If the Maryland member 
believed the President had committed the misdemeanors 
charged and insinuated it was his duty to bring before the 
House the question of impeachment. Far less than was ex- 
pressed in the protest would have been ground for investiga- 
tion. If tenderness to Lincoln, a weakness of which Mr. 
Davis at least was never suspected, or a concern for party 
welfare prevented such a step, then he was himself guilty of 
a gross neglect of duty. Doubtless this consideration, to- 
gether with the want of moderation shown in the manifesto, 
subjected its authors to a suspicion of insincerity. Indeed, 
one does not read a dozen lines of their arraignment without 
discovering the chief if not the sole cause of its publication. 
" The President," they say, " did not sign the bill * to guar- 
antee to certain States whose governments have been usurped, 
a republican form of government ' — passed by the supporters 
of his Administration in both Houses of Congress after ma- 
ture deliberation." In brief, the political departments of 
Government had entered upon a struggle for power; Con- 
gress had been defeated, and its discomfited leaders sought 
to relieve their feelings by railing at the President. 

Except that it probably defeated the renomination of Mr. 
Davis for Congress, their protest was followed by no political 
result of moment.^ In it the mass of Republicans perceived 
* Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II. p. 44. 



RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN 285 

only the seeds of dissension within their ranks. In this view 
it was a source of dehght to Democrats, though they felt lit- 
tle sympathy with either the defeated bill or the purposes of 
its chief authors. 



VIII 

AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 

WHEN Congress met in December, 1864, Mr. Lin- 
coln, who received the electoral votes of twenty- 
two of the twenty-five States participating in 
the contest, had again been chosen President. In the struggle 
for power he had refrained with his usual prudence from im- 
proving his advantage over the Legislative department. The 
annual message omitted all reference to the controversy oc- 
casioned by his failure to sign, and his proclamation con- 
cerning, the bill of Messrs. Wade and Davis; the question 
of reconstruction was noticed in only the most casual manner. 
A statement of the satisfactory condition of foreign relations 
introduced the Executive communication; the subject of 
finance received the consideration that its importance re- 
quired. The vast proportions and the efficient state of the 
navy were mentioned as matter of congratulation. General 
Sherman's projected march of three hundred miles through 
hostile regions was characterized as the most remarkable fea- 
ture in the military operations of the year. This with other 
evidences of approaching disruption in the Confederacy led 
logically to a summary of what had been accomplished to- 
ward reorganization in those States already wrested from in- 
surgent armies. On this subject the message observed : " Im- 
portant movements have also occurred during the year to the 
effect of molding society for durability in the Union. Al- 
though short of complete success, it is much in the right 
direction that twelve thousand citizens in each of the States 
286 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 287 

of Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal State gov- 
ernments, with free constitutions, and are earnestly struggling 
to maintain and administer them." * Movements in the same 
direction, he said, more extensive though less definite, were 
in progress elsewhere and should not be overlooked. No 
plan of reconstruction was proposed, or even alluded to in 
the message. 

Among questions beyond Executive authority to adjust 
was specified the admission of members to Congress. In dis- 
claiming power over this subject he anticipated the criticism 
of those Senators and Representatives who later in the session 
ascribed to him a design to usurp important functions of the 
Legislative branch of Government. 

From its concluding paragraphs we are enabled to collect 
the sentiments of the President relative to his offer, a year 
before, of a general pardon to designated classes upon speci- 
fied terms. In this connection he said : " But the time may 
come — probably will come — when public duty shall demand 
that it [the door open to repentant rebels] be closed; and 
that, in lieu, more rigorous measures than heretofore shall be 
adopted." This seems to establish beyond question the fact 
that Mr. Lincoln feared some measures more stringent than 
he had been hitherto pursuing might be rendered necessary 
by the failure of a policy of clemency to recall any large 
number of insurgents to their obedience to the Constitution 
and the laws. 

He ventured to recommend a reconsideration of the pro- 
posed constitutional amendment abolishing slavery through- 
out the United States, which at the preceding session had 
passed the Senate, but failed to receive in the House the requi- 
site two thirds vote. Though the present, he reminded them, 
was the same Congress and composed of nearly the same mem- 
bers, their judgments were, no doubt, influenced by an inter- 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., p. 557. 



288 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

vening election, which, though it imposed on them no obliga- 
tion to change their views, made it reasonably certain that if 
they did not submit the amendment to the States the succeed- 
ing Congress would. He inquired, since its passage was 
merely a question of time, whether they would not agree that 
the sooner the better? The voice of the people, he added, 
had for the first time been heard on that question.^ 

As the President believed, the House had been so far con- 
verted to his views that a joint resolution adopting the 
amendment was passed early in the session by a vote of 119 
to 56.^ 

When Congress assembled the public was occupied chiefly 
in watching the progress of naval and military operations. 
The sinking of the Alabama and the capture of the Florida 
practically ended Confederate privateering, for any expecta- 
tions based upon the escape of the Albemarle were frustrated 
by the enterprise and daring of Lieutenant Cushing. One 
army had been destroyed by Sheridan, another crippled by 
Thomas. Tidings of telling blows inflicted by General Sher- 
man gave something like assurance of his safety. Though 
not without heavy loss, Grant had forced Lee within the de- 
fences of Richmond and Petersburg. Some of the lesser 
Union advantages had, it is true, been offset by Southern 
victories; signs of disintegration within the Confederacy, 
however, were multiplying, and this condition forced upon 
Congress the inevitable question of reconstruction. 

By unanimous consent of the House Thaddeus Stevens, 
on December 8, offered resolutions distributing the President's 
message. To the Committee on the Rebellious States was 
referred so much of it as was alleged to relate " to the duty 
of the United States to guaranty a republican form of gov- 

* McPherson's Pol. Hist., pp. 555-558. 

* Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. III. p. 452. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 289 

ernment to the States in which the governments recognized 
by the United States have been abrogated or overthrown." ^ 

Nothing whatever in the message or the accompanying 
documents related to any such duty on the part of the United 
States, and the resolution assumed such a recommendation, no 
doubt, for the purpose of bringing the subject before Con- 
gress. One week later, Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, reported a 
bill, on the subject of Stevens's resolution, which was read 
twice, ordered to be printed and returned to the Commit- 
tee. On January 12 succeeding Representative Eliot, of 
Massachusetts, gave notice of his intention to offer at the 
proper time an amendment to the bill in charge of Mr. 
Ashley. No objection having been made, it was ordered 
to be printed. This was, in fact, a substitute for the bill re- 
ported by the Ohio member, and provided " that no State 
engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United 
States shall be allowed to resume its political relations with 
the Government of the United States until by the action of 
the loyal citizens within the limits of the same a State con- 
stitution shall be ordained and established, republican in form, 
forever prohibiting involuntary servitude within the State, 
and guarantying to all persons freedom and equality of rights 
before the law." Its second section provided " that the State 
of Louisiana shall be permitted to renew its political rela- 
tions with the Government of the United States under the 
constitution adopted by the convention assembled at New 
Orleans on the 6th of April, 1864." ^ 

That some of the more influential among the radical mem- 
bers desired to avoid, if possible, a controversy with the Presi- 
dent may be fairly inferred from a letter of Charles Sumner, 
written December 2y, 1864, to Doctor Lieber. Among other 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 12-13. 
' Ibid., p. 234. 



290 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

things the Senator says : " I have presented to the President 
the duty of harmony between Congress and the Executive. 
He is agreed. It is proposed to admit Louisiana (which 
ought not to be done), and at the same time pass the recon- 
struction bill for all the other States, giving the electoral 
franchise to * all citizens ' without distinction of color. If 
this arrangement is carried out, it will be an immense political 
act." ^ A communication to John Bright, written a few days 
after the above, January i, 1865, confirms this view. On that 
occasion Mr. Sumner said : " The President is exerting every 
force to bring Congress to receive Louisiana under the Banks 
government. I do not believe Louisiana is strong enough in 
loyalty and freedom for an independent State. The evi- 
dence on this point seems overwhelming. I have discussed it 
with the President, and have tried to impress on him the 
necessity of having no break between him and Congress on 
such questions. Much as I am against the premature recogni- 
tion of Louisiana, I will hold my peace if I can secure a rule 
for other States, so that we may be saved from daily anxiety 
with regard to their condition." ^ These passages explain the 
amendment to the revived bill. Sumner was willing to remain 
a neutral spectator of the debates on the recognition of Louis- 
iana provided the reorganization of the remaining States 
should be made on the lines indicated by Congress. 

On January 16, Ashley's bill was reached in the regular 
order of business; by direction of the Committee on the Rebel- 
lious States, it was offered as a substitute for the original 
measure, from which it differed in one very important particu- 
lar. It expressly recognized the loyal governments of both 
Louisiana and Arkansas. By unanimous consent the proposed 
enactment, considered as an original bill, was ofifered for the 

* Pierce, Memoir of Charles Sumner, Vol. IV. p. 205. 

* Ibid., p. 221. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 291 

plan submitted by Henry Winter Davis at the preceding 
session. 

Representative William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, would 
amend the clause providing for the enrollment of " all the 
white male citizens of the United States " by inserting the 
words " and all other male citizens of the United States who 
may be able to read the Constitution thereof." Mr. Eliot 
then introduced the amendment of which he had previously 
given notice. By Representative Arnold another amendment 
was offered to that of Eliot. 

Judge Kelley opened the debate by declaring that indem- 
nity for the past the victors in the war could not hope to 
obtain; they could, however, demand security for the future. 
In a very long speech he discussed the status of the negro in 
the early days of the Republic; this portion of his address 
was concluded with the remark that his amendment did not 
contemplate that the entire mass of people of African descent, 
degraded and brutalized by laws and customs, be immediately 
clothed with all the rights of citizenship, but only those so 
far fitted by education for its judicious exercise as were able 
to read the Constitution and the laws of the United States. 
This, indeed, he admitted, was only an entering wedge and 
was to be regarded as an aid to their improvement; when 
sufficiently advanced they were to be endowed with every 
right necessary to their protection. A strong plea was made 
to confer the suffrage on the colored man; otherwise, asked 
the Pennsylvania member, how will it be possible to prevent 
his subjugation? He would not rely on men's abstract sense 
of justice, for that had not prevented outrages in the past. 
Justice should be embodied in laws and constitutions while 
it was in the power of Congress to do so. That body was to 
determine who should select delegates to the conventions 
that were to frame governments for the insurgent States. 



292 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The Union minorities in the South required the poHtical sup- 
port of every loyal man in their communities. It was the 
power, he reminded Representatives, not the spirit of the 
rebellion that Federal armies were overthrowing. In con- 
clusion he declared himself in favor of conferring the suf- 
frage on " every man who fights or pays," a doctrine which 
he ascribed to Jefferson, in whose party he said he had been 
trained.^ 

Mr. Eliot, who spoke on January 17, regretted that he had 
not been able to support the amended bill reported from the 
select committee. Partly because of the interest, he said, 
which his friend Henry Winter Davis took in the subject he 
came to its consideration prepossessed in its favor. The pro- 
visions of the measure passed at the preceding session, how- 
ever, were not then discussed. There were strong reasons for 
action at that time which no longer existed to the same extent. 
There was time enough on the present occasion, January, 
1865, to make it more perfect and more practicable than the 
plan offered by the committee. 

Entering upon an examination of the bill he declared that its 
terms were peremptory; eleven States were in rebellion, and by 
the first section the President was called upon to appoint for 
each of them a provisional governor. Such appointments were 
to be made when the measure became a law. Except in Lou- 
isiana, Arkansas and Tennessee these appointments would be 
not only useless but a needless source of expense, and though 
section fifteen recognized the governments established in the 
two former, the machinery of the bill would be applied to all 
the States in rebellion. 

It imposed upon the several governors proposed to be ap- 
pointed executive duties which they could not assume until 
the power of the United States had vindicated itself within 
those States; there were other duties which they should not 
^ Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 281-291. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 293 

be required to perform. They were to see that the laws 
which were in force in that section in i860 should be faith- 
fully executed, with no knowledge on the part of the House 
of the import of those laws. Why should Congress assume 
responsibility for enforcing the black code ? Why demand the 
enforcement, he asked, of minute police regulations in States 
where complexion appointed or reduced punishment? Other 
laws were specified, such as those punishing the circulation of 
books or writings advocating human rights, laws requiring 
the removal from those States of free persons of color, pro- 
hibiting them from engaging in business, and punishing by 
the lash upon suspicion of false testimony and before con- 
viction. There was a law, he said, in one of those States re- 
quiring the imprisonment of free colored sailors in her ports.^ 
These provisions and many others of the same tenor were 
contained in the statute books of those States in i860 and 
had been enforced. The penalty dififered according to color; 
offences when committed by a white man were punished in 
one way, and when committed by colored men in another way. 
The provisional governor was charged with the faithful exe- 
cution of such laws. 

The provision for the assessment and collection of taxes 
he characterized as a remarkable proposition; they were to be 
imposed without representation, without any persons at the 
national capital to enlighten Congress on the subject; they 
were to be laid without the knowledge of the parties con- 
cerned or the parties to be affected. 

The sixth section, he continued, provided that every per- 
son who should thereafter hold certain offices in the Con- 
federacy was " declared not to be a citizen of the United 
States." That, Mr. Eliot contended, was applying the pun- 

^ An interesting account of the imprisonment of colored seamen in the 
ports of South Carolina is given in The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power 
in America, Vol. I. pp. 576-586. 



294 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ishment before the offence had been committed. If Congress 
declared that a man should for a certain offence be deprived 
of citizenship, could he, then, be indicted for treason subse- 
quently committed ? 

The question of electing delegates to constitutional con- 
ventions presented a practical difficulty. Colored soldiers and 
sailors in the service were made voters by the bill; but they 
were not enrolled, they were not registered or credited to any 
county or parish ; they were aggregated. They had no legal 
local habitation. They may have belonged to men owning 
plantations in several districts. The bill did not designate. 
With the white soldier the case was different, for he was 
known to belong to a certain district. If colored men entitled, 
because of military or naval service, to participate in the 
choice of delegates should be out of the service before the 
election occurred, and others should have taken their places, 
which class could vote, those in the service of the Government 
when the election for delegates took place, or those serving 
when the bill passed Congress? 

Whether the difficulties pointed out were inseparable from 
any bill on the subject, he would not undertake to say. But 
in his judgment it would be unsafe for Congress to permit 
a measure containing such provisions to become a law. 
" Why," he asked, " is it not more wise to take the States as 
they shall present themselves for admission? " Arkansas had 
acted in one way, Louisiana in another, and Tennessee was 
proceeding in still a different manner. 

Notwithstanding his objections to some features of the 
Louisiana constitution, he favored her recognition. From 
information derived from the highest sources, he had no 
doubt that her Legislature would supply such deficiencies. 
There were influences bearing on that body which he be- 
lieved could not be resisted. 

Thaddeus Stevens inquired, " If Louisiana and those other 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 295 

States are in the Union, by what authority do we legislate 
for their internal police ? " This provoked laughter on the 
Democratic side of the House. '' If they are in the Union," 
answered Mr. Eliot, " just as Pennsylvania is, we ought not 
to; but the difficulty is that they are not in the Union in that 
sense, to that extent, thus fully. They are not out of the 
Union territorially, and yet rebellion has overthrown their 
governments for a time, and it is needful that the Congress 
of the United States should intervene and should legislate." 
To this the Pennsylvania leader further observed, " I under- 
stand the gentleman to say that they are partly in the Union, 
and partly out. About how much are they in the Union and 
about how much out?" This keen thrust was greeted by 
more laughter from the Democratic members.^ 

On his motion to postpone further consideration for two 
weeks Mr. Wilson demanded the previous question. Henry 
Winter Davis appealed to him to withdraw the motion. This 
Mr. Wilson declined to do, upon which the Maryland mem- 
ber observed, " a vote to postpone is equivalent to a vote 
to kill the bill." By 103 yeas to 34 nays, however, further 
debate was postponed till the ist of February succeeding.^ 

Though Representative Washburne, of Illinois, moved on 
February 7 a further postponement of two weeks, the sub- 
ject was before the House again on the following day, when 
it went over informally. Debate was not resumed till the 
20th, when Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, took the floor. 

The Thirty-eighth Congress, he said, was in the last days 
of its last session; a bill containing the main features of the 
measure under consideration, though it passed both Houses, 
failed at the preceding session to become a law; this circum- 
stance led him to make a careful examination of the subject. 
The proposed enactment was not designed to invigorate the 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 298-301. 
•Ibid. 



296 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

army, the navy or the Executive; it was intended rather to 
follow the army. It was intended to be applied to the condi- 
tion in which the army left the State. " It is an attempt," 
he said, " to gather up the ' disjecta membra ' of those States, 
the broken and torn fragments of those communities, and out 
of the chaos, as well as the ruins and debris that are left in 
the march of those armies, to create a State capable of dis- 
charging the functions, exercising the authority, and invoking 
the recognition of this Government, and of the people under 
which it lives. 

"... The bill proceeds upon the supposition not 
only that there are States still existing, but that their old con- 
stitutions and laws are still in full force and operation "; for 
it imposed upon the provisional governor the faithful execu- 
tion of those laws in force when rebellion overthrew their 
State governments, with the single exception of the provision 
touching the enforcement of laws against slavery and the 
mode of trial and punishment of colored people. Two re- 
markable features of the bill, he asserted, were those em- 
powering the Executive in Washington, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint governors in 
every one of those States; then, no matter what provisions 
for their election existed in the State law, the President was 
authorized to appoint just as many and just as few officers as 
he pleased. It might be a judge of the highest court of 
judicature in the State; or it might be the humblest road- 
master; it might be any one or all of the countless corps 
between them. There was no provision in the bill that they 
should be even residents of the State. " An army of officers," 
he continued, " in one paragraph of four lines, is here created, 
subject to the sole authority and control of the President of 
the United States." In a Confederate report Mr. Dawes no- 
ticed that there were 13,000 of them in a single State. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 297 

" What," he asked, " is the effect to be on the people over 
whom, from every quarter of this Union, broken-down poli- 
ticians, men without place, foot-loose, are to be placed? 
Sir, it is a reproach to our Government at this hour that 
there are, about this capital and in the Northern States, 
men who have been appointed to the judgeships of district 
and other courts of the rebel States and Territories, drawing 
quarterly the salaries of those offices, although they have 
never been able, from the hour they received their commis- 
sions to the present moment to set foot in the States over 
whose courts they have been appointed. They could not go 
one rod into the State, positions in whose highest courts they 
have held for more than a year, without being hung on the 
first tree. . . . But my friend [Mr. Ashley] has re- 
ported a bill here which authorizes an army of thousands of 
these officeholders to go into those States, with commissions 
from this capital in their pockets, to lord it over the poor, 
miserable inhabitants left behind the army there. These 
rebel States may be thus converted into asylums for broken- 
down politicians." 

In the language of indignation he entered into a criti- 
cism of that policy which proposed to levy on the house- 
less and homeless wanderers in the South, even then only 
saved from starvation by the charity of the North, precisely 
the same amount of taxes raised in i860 when, by com- 
parison, the people were in a princely state. " Sir," he 
declared, " there is not an army, great as our army is, that 
has power enough to accomplish that one single feat provided 
for in this bill, for the very plain reason that there is not 
money enough left in any one of these States outside the 
Government with which to pay that round sum for one single 
year. . . . This wise, efficacious policy is resorted to 
in this bill to hasten on, I suppose, that other day mentioned 



298 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

in it, when a majority of these people, molded by this process, 
won by its benignity ' shall voluntarily take the oath of 
allegiance.' " 

He asserted, as Eliot had done, that the committee were 
calling upon Congress to sanction all the black codes of those 
States, save only that part which held men in bondage, and 
that was allowed to enforce itself. 

The omissions, he asserted, were not less remarkable than 
the provisions of the bill. The state of things established by 
it was of indefinite duration. There was no provision for the 
peculiar conditions existing there. " There is no attempt at 
any adaptation of these laws to the new state of things con- 
sequent upon the rebellion, and consequent upon our consti- 
tutional action here. Not only is there no provision for the 
new wants and necessities of this wasted and wretched people 
who have been involved in the rebellion, but for that other 
people who have now passed into freedom by our legislation, 
and by the military consequences of this rebellion, who are 
now without food, without subsistence, without knowledge, 
and without opportunity to support and maintain themselves; 
yes, sir, without homes, literally without where to lay their 
heads." There were 3,000,000 of these people, he added, 
whose very existence was ignored by the bill; there was no 
provision for schools; no provision for even a poorhouse; 
no provision to teach them the arts of civilization, no pro- 
vision for kindling in them hope, for holding up before them 
incentives to industry or securing to them its reward. Under 
the operations of the bill they were the objects of free plun- 
der; they were to go forth to be hunted, despoiled and per- 
secuted : outcasts in the land. 

By the bill it was left in the discretion of the provisional 
governor, he asserted, to terminate the system set over them. 
He, as well as the army of officeholders under him, would be 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 299 

interested in prolonging the period until the people had suf- 
Hciently returned to their obedience. Before the initiatory 
steps could be taken, even if the provisional governor were 
willing, a majority of the people in each State must of their 
own choice signify their loyalty by taking the oath of alle- 
giance. This made the matter dependent not upon the wish of 
the loyal, but of the disloyal persons who constituted the 
majority in those States. 

The plan, he further stated, ignored the principle that the 
American people have the right to shape and alter for them- 
selves the rules by which they are to be governed. If the 
matter was left in the hands of the disloyal, the time would 
be far distant when Union governments would be instituted 
in those States. The only wise policy was to establish a 
government among the loyal; even though it might be weak 
and inefficient at first, it would finally win back those who 
desired to be reconciled. The other numerous class, those 
who deserved to be hanged, were not provided for in the 
bill. He was opposed to the provision which would turn over 
to insurgents the loyal minorities in those States, and was not 
less opposed to prescribing a fixed iron rule by conformity to 
which alone out of chaos and anarchy might be made a loyal 
government. 

Further, the bill proceeded upon the assumption that there 
was no power in these people, except what was conferred on 
them by Federal legislation, to establish State governments. 
This he denied, and the authors of the proposed measure, by 
ofifering to recognize the establishments otherwise organized 
in Arkansas and Louisiana had conceded as much. In 
the people, he said, and in them alone, existed the author- 
ity to form an organic law subject to the constitutional 
provision that the government should be republican in form. 
He favored a recognition of the Louisiana government not 



300 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

because it was formed under the guidance of General Banks, 
but because it was made by the loyal people of that State, 
was acquiesced in by them, and because under it they were 
building up a loyal government. 

Governors Hahn and Murphy and the officials chosen in 
Louisiana and Arkansas who had been exercising their func- 
tions for a year would be dispossessed by foreigners sent 
amongst them by the President, who was empowered to do so 
by the bill; bickerings, heartburnings and discontent would 
follow any attempt to enforce this policy. Sooner or later 
the people of those States must be allowed to form govern- 
ments for themselves, protected by the parental care of the 
central authority.^ 

Fernando Wood declared that he had listened with interest 
and pleasure to words of conciliation for the South; little 
but subjugation, devastation and annihilation had thus far 
been heard from the party, the Administration and the people 
represented by Mr. Daw'es. 

The seceding States, Mr. Wood contended, had republican 
forms of government which the treason of individuals did not 
affect. Nor did individual crimes destroy the rights of the 
people to regulate their domestic institutions. The forms of 
government were the same as those that existed in the re- 
bellious States six years before. Even admitting that they 
had not such governments in existence among them, the bill 
did not provide a republican form of government for those 
States.2 

He was followed in opposition to the proposed enactment 
by Mr. LeBlond, of Ohio, who discussed both the status of 
the rebellious States and their form of government. His 
speech on the former question added nothing of value to what 
Representative Pendleton had said at the preceding session, 

^ "Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38tli Cong., pp. 934-937- 
* Ibid., pp. 937-939- 



1 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 301 

nor did he enter upon so able an examination of the clause 
guaranteeing a repubhcan form of government as did Senator 
CarHle on that occasion. 

Henry T. Blow, of Missouri, made an appeal for the admis- 
sion of Arkansas and Louisiana to prevent destructive mili- 
tary raids into those States as well as his own. He would 
support any measure that would restore them and strengthen 
their loyal population. However, he did not favor negro 
suffrage. His remarks scarcely touched the measure before 
the House. ^ 

Joseph K. Edgerton, of Indiana, who followed in a lengthy 
speech in opposition, said : 

The forerunner of this measure of legislation, so far as this House is 
concerned, may be found in the territorial bill reported by the gentleman 
from Ohio [Mr. Ashley] from the Committee on Territories in the 
Thirty-seventh Congress, in March, 1862. It was aptly termed at the 
time by the gentleman's colleague from the Cincinnati district of Ohio 
[Mr. Pendleton] " A bill to dissolve the Union and abolish the Con- 
stitution of the United States." The bill was summarily, if not indig- 
nantly, rejected by the House without a second reading. But, sir, men 
and events have since changed, if the Constitution of the United States 
has not changed, and the stone of revolutionary reconstruction then 
rejected by the masterbuilders in this House bids fair to become the 
head of the corner. Then the Constitution was not altogether repudiated 
as the foundation of our legislation; now revolutionary opinions and 
plans override it as a thing of the past. Not many are there in this 
Congress, and fewer there will be in the next, I fear, to do reverence to 
the Constitution and obey its commands. 

The President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, was 
then noticed, and his usurpation of authority denounced; the 
subject of the Louisiana government was also entered upon 
and fully discussed. He next referred to the introduction 
early in the preceding session of a resolution by Henry Winter 
Davis providing for the appointment of a special committee 
authorized to report a bill guaranteeing a republican form of 
government to the rebellious States. The fate of that bilL 

^ Appendix to Globe, Part H., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 73-75. 



302 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

President Lincoln's proclamation concerning it, and the pro- 
test of Wade and Davis were successively dwelt upon. 

The question between the President and his two Con- 
gressional friends, Wade and Davis, was to Mr. Edgerton's 
mind " one between two usurping powers, the Executive and 
the Legislative"; but, he continued, "I am free to say my 
sympathies were with the legislators and not with the Presi- 
dent. Executive edicts have done more than acts of Con- 
gress during the last four years to sap the foundations and 
remove the landmarks of the Constitution." The majority in 
Congress, he asserted, by consenting to recognize the govern- 
ments of Louisiana and Arkansas, kissed the hand that smote 
them. 

He opposed a recognition of the Louisiana government 
because of its unconstitutional origin; Arkansas, he said, 
differed from it in no material respect. After stating the 
provisions of the bill he gave the following summary of its 
effects : 

1. To take from the people of the State all power to initiate proceedings 
to reorganize their own State government in harmony with the Consti- 
tution of the United States, or even to prescribe the qualifications of 
suffrage. The bill ignores the idea that there is any "ital power in the 
people to restore their State government — not only taken from them by 
rebellion but kept from them by Federal power — ... 

2. The effect is to exclude from the reorganization the entire white 
population of the State who shall have held office or voluntarily borne 
arms against the United States, or who shall not take the oath of July 
2, 1862. 

3. To confine the right of suffrage and power of reorganization to 
enrolled men and Federal soldiers taking the oath; and the law affords 
no guaranty that even the enrollment shall embrace a majority of males 
over twenty-one years of age. The majority required as a basis of action 
is so many of enrolled persons taking the oath as, with the soldiers, 
shall constitute a majority of the persons enrolled; that majority, 
through defect or fraud in enrollment, may be not even one tenth of the 
males of the State over twenty-one years of age. 

4. The effect is the absolute disfranchisement of eleven States and their 
continuance in a state of war until they accept " the abandonment of 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 



303 



slavery," as dictated to them by the United States, and until by organic 
law they declare that all persons shall have " equality of civil rights be- 
fore the law " of the State ; a well-seeming phrase of broad import ; the 
precise meaning of which I do not understand. A woman is a person, 
a negro is a person, an alien is a person, and the right of suffrage is a 
civil right. Does this high-sounding phrase of the bill mean that women, 
negroes, and aliens shall have equal right to vote in a regenerated State 
with white male citizens? What does "equality of civil rights before 
the law for all persons " mean ? 



In fact and in purpose, then, the bill before the House is one to 
abolish slavery in the United States, and to enfranchise and elevate 
negroes, and to disfranchise and degrade white men; a bill to change 
the social and industrial systems and internal policy of eleven States; 
a bill to take from those States their inherent reserved constitutional 
right to regulate in their own way their internal policy, not inconsistent 
with the Constitution of the United States. It is a bill to punish treason 
without trial or conviction; a bill to confiscate private property without 
adequate compensation; in short, a bill to reconstruct States and make 
State constitutions, when in truth no States or their constitutions have 
been destroyed, or need reconstruction, unless by the voluntary action of 
their own people. 



If this is a revolutionary Congress, you have a revolutionary power 
to pass this bill; but if it be, as I am bound by my oath of office to 
believe and assert, a Congress sitting under the Constitution of the 
United States, and having no powers outside of or unknown to it, then 
you cannot constitutionally pass this bill. 

He Stated further that the bill " embodies a spirit and 
purpose toward the Southern people which, if impolitic and 
vindictive one year ago, when the bill first came before the 
House, and when our enemy was far stronger and more 
defiant than now, is still more impolitic and vindictive at this 
time, when the minds of all good men are searching diligently 
for ways of reconciliation and peace." 

In conclusion he declared : " The Congress of the United 
States, the legislative power of the Union, and the Con- 
stitution, is asked by this bill to be the minister and execu- 
tioner of the great revenge of section upon section, States 



304 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

North upon States South. For one, sir, I wash my hands of 
the deed." ^ 

The passages quoted convey no adequate idea of the able 
and comprehensive character of Mr. Edgerton's speech. It 
was concerned not only with the subject under discussion, 
but extended to a rather searching examination of Republican 
professions in 1861 and the revolutionary practices of a later 
time. It was marked throughout by perfect temper, but was 
not on that account less effective. Any extension of time, 
however, even twenty minutes, was denied him by the 
majority. 

At this point, February 21, Ashley withdrew a motion he 
had previously made to recommit the bill, and by authority 
of his committee withdrew the measure which was the origi- 
nal text and, in lieu thereof, introduced another. With this 
substitution the pending amendments fell. Representative 
Wilson desired his substitute to hold its original place. 
Messrs. Wilson, Kelley and Eliot then modified their amend- 
ments to the measure hitherto under discussion, and Ashley 
explained his action in a brief address. 

He referred to the bill which at the preceding session 
failed to receive the President's approval. Since then he had 
labored earnestly to conciliate members on his side of the 
House who had scruples about the measure as it originally 
passed, and, if possible, obtain a united vote in its favor. 
For that purpose he consented to a compromise in providing 
for the recognition of Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. 
The conditions were not such as he would prescribe if those 
States stood alone. But in order to secure what he thought 
of paramount importance — universal suffrage to the liberated 
black men of the South — he consented to insert in the bill 
which he had proposed a few days previously, a conditional 
recognition of existing governments in the States of Louisiana 

* Appendix to Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 75-83. 



I 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 305 

and Arkansas, and the government then being organized in 
Tennessee. 

Disappointed in his efforts to win the cooperation of 
Representatives who entertained practically the same opin- 
ions which he did in favor of universal suffrage for the colored 
man, and in favor of the early recognition of every Confeder- 
ate State with a population sufficient to maintain a govern- 
ment, he now declined to offer his substitute. At the request 
and with the concurrence of his committee the bill of the 
preceding session was offered with some modifications. These 
alterations were to strike out all that the bill contained to 
which gentlemen had raised objection, in that it seemingly 
authorized the execution of State laws as they existed at the 
commencement of the rebellion. To make it perfectly clear 
what the committee intended, they had inserted a provision 
that the governor should execute only such laws as related to 
the protection of persons and property; that all laws incon- 
sistent with the proposed enactment, and all laws recognizing 
the relation of master and slave, should not be enforced. The 
section which authorized the collection of taxes had been 
omitted. He preferred not to commit himself to a recog- 
nition of the Louisiana and Arkansas governments, unless 
he could secure what he thought of paramount importance 
in reorganizing the other States. 

" It is very clear to my mind," he asserted, " that no bill 
providing for the reorganization of loyal State governments 
in the rebel States can pass this Congress. I am pretty sure 
that this bill and all the amendments and substitutes offered 
will fail to command a majority of this House." 

The course of debate had shown on the Republican side, 
he said, so strong an individuality that no compromise could 
bring them together on the great question of reconstruction. 
Many on his side were capital leaders in the minority; they 
were good at pulling down, but not so good at leading 



3o6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

majorities and building up. He admitted their utter inability 
to agree on the subject, and had consented to a conditional 
recognition of certain State governments because he knew 
they could be upheld by military power until the rebellion 
should be crushed. Republicans were so nearly unanimous 
at the preceding session, he said, that he felt the concessions 
embodied in his substitute would enable them to agree without 
much discussion or without consuming the valuable time of 
the House so late in the session. His remarks not only 
showed disappointment at the attitude of his party, but 
clearly revealed the existence of a schism in its ranks.^ 

Henry Winter Davis then rose to state the case for the 
House. The bill, he said, to which amendments were pend- 
ing was the same as that which at the preceding session re- 
ceived the assent of both Houses of Congress, with some 
modifications to suit the tender susceptibilities of gentlemen 
from Massachusetts : " first, the sixth section, declaring rebel 
officers not citizens of the United States, has been stricken 
out; second, the taxation clause has been stricken out; third, 
the word ' government ' has been inserted before * trial and 
punishment,' to meet the refined criticisms of the two gentle- 
men from Massachusetts who suppose that penal laws would 
be in force and operative when the penalties were forbidden 
to be enforced; that discriminating laws could survive the 
declaration that there should be no discrimination between 
different persons in trial or punishment. There has been 
one section added to meet the present aspect of public affairs; 
that section authorizes the President, instead of pursuing the 
method prescribed in the bill in reference to the States where 
military resistance shall have been suppressed, in the event 
of the legislative authority under the rebellion in any rebel 
State taking the oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States, annulling their confiscation laws and ratifying 
* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 968-969. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 307 

the amendment proposed by this Congress to the Constitution 
of the United States, before mihtary resistance shall be sup- 
pressed in such State, to recognize them as constituting the 
legal authority of the State, and directing him to report those 
facts to Congress for its assent and ratification. With these 
modifications, the bill which is now the test for amendment is 
the bill which was adopted by this House at the last session." 

He need not be at the trouble, he said, to answer the argu- 
ments of gentlemen who at the preceding session voted for 
the bill, and who, in the repose of the intervening period, 
had criticised in detail the language and, not stopping there, 
had found in its substance that it violated the principles of 
republican government and sanctioned the enormities of those 
laws with which slavery had covered and defiled the statutes 
of every Southern State. 

With increasing severity Mr. Davis proceeded : 

That these discoveries should have been made since the vote of last 
session is quite as remarkable as that they should have been overlooked 
before that vote. But they were neither overlooked before nor discovered 
since. The vote was before a pending election. It is the will of the 
President which has been discovered since. 

It is not at all surprising, Mr. Speaker, that the President, having 
failed to sign the bill passed by the whole body of his supporters by both 
Houses at the last session of Congress, and having assigned, under 
pressure of events, but without the authority of law, reasons, good or 
bad, first for refusing to allow the bill to become a law, and therefore 
usurping power to execute parts of it as law, while he discarded other 
parts which interfered with possible electoral votes, those arguments 
should be found satisfactory to some minds prone to act upon the 
winking of authority. 

The weight of that species of argument I am not able to estimate. It 
tids defiance to every species of reply. It is that subtle, pervading epi- 
demic of the time that penetrates the closest argument as spirit pene- 
trates matter that diffuses itself with the atmosphere of authority, relax- 
ing the energy of the strong, bending down the upright, diverting just 
men from the path of rectitude, and substituting the will and favor 
of power for the will and interest of the people as the rule of legislative 
action. 



3o8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

All I desire now to do is to state the case and predict results from 
one course or the other. The course of military events seems to indicate 
that possibly by the 4th of next July, probably by next December, 
organized, armed rebellion will cease to lift its brazen front in the land. 
Disasters may intervene; errors or weaknesses may prolong the con- 
flict ; the proverbial chances of war may interpose their caprices to 
defer the national triumph ; but events now point to the near approach of 
the end. But whether sooner or later, whenever it comes, there is one 
thing that will assuredly accompany it. If this bill do not become a law, 
when Congress again meets, at our doors, clamorous and dictatorial, 
will be sixty-five Representatives from the States now in rebellion, and 
twenty-two Senators, claiming admission, and, upon the theory of the 
honorable gentleman, entitled to admission beyond the power of argument 
to resist it ; for peace will have been restored, there will be no armed 
power but that of the United States ; there will be quiet, and votes will 
be polled under the existing laws of the State, in the gentleman's view. 
Are you ready to accept that consequence? For if they come to the 
door of the House they will cross the threshold of the House, and any 
gentleman who does not know that, or who is so weak or so wild as to 
suppose that any declaratory resolution adopted by both Houses as a 
condition precedent can stop that flood, had better put his puny hands 
across the flood of the flowing Mississippi and say that it shall not 
enter the Gulf of Mexico. 

There are things, gentlemen, that are possible at one time and not 
possible at another. You can now prevent the rise of the flood, but 
when it is up you can not stop it. If gentlemen are in favor of meeting 
that state of things, then do as has been already so distinctly intimated 
in the course of this debate, vote against this bill in all its aspects; 
leave the door wide open; let "our brethren of the South," whose 
bayonets are now pointed at our brothers' hearts, drop their arms, put on 
the seemly garb of peace, go through the forms of an election, and 
assert the triumph of their beaten faction under the forms of political 
authority after the sword has decided against them. I am no prophet, 
but that is the history of next December if this bill be defeated; and I 
expect it not to become a law. 

But suppose the other course to be pursued; suppose the President 
sees fit to do what there is not the least reason to suppose that he 
desires to do ; suppose that after he has destroyed the armies in the 
field he should go further, and do, as I think he ought to do, what the 
judgment of this country dictates, treat those who hold power in the 
South as rebels and not as governors or legislators; disperse them from 
the halls of legislation ; expel them from executive mansions, strip them 
of the emblems of authority, and set to work to hunt out the pliant and 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 309 

supple " Union men," so-called, who have cringed before the storm, 
but who will be willing to govern their fellow-citizens under the pro- 
tection of United States bayonets; suppose that the fruitful example 
of Louisiana shall spread like a mist over all the rest of the southern 
country, and that Representatives like what Louisiana has sent here, 
with such a backing of votes as she has given, shall appear here at the 
doors of this Hall ; whose representatives are they ? I do not mean to 
speak of the gentlemen now here from Louisiana in their individual 
character, but in their political relations to their constituency. Whose 
representatives are they? In Louisiana they are the representatives of 
the bayonets of General Banks and the will of the President, as ex- 
pressed in his secret letter to General Banks. If you admit such repre- 
sentatives, you must admit, on the same basis and under the same 
influences, Representatives from every State from Texas to Virginia; 
the common council at Alexandria — which has just sent two Senators 
to the other House and has ratified the amendment to the Constitution 
abolishing slavery in all the rest of Virginia, where none of them dare 
put his portly person — would be entitled to send ten Representatives 
here and two Senators to speak for the indomitable " Old Dominion." 
If the rebel Representatives are not here in December next you will 
have here servile tools of the Executive who will embarrass your legisla- 
tion, humble your Congress, degrade the name of republican govern- 
ment for two years, and then the natural majority of the South, rising 
indignantly against that humiliating insult, will swamp you here with 
rebel Representatives and be your masters. These are their alternatives 
and there is no middle ground. 

To Mr, Eliot's objection the Maryland member replied that 
provisional governors " are appointed nozv without IotlV, and 
all we propose is that they shall be under the responsibility 
of law and subject to the control and coniirmation of the 
Senate." Having in mind this condition and the Executive 
appointments to judicial places in Louisiana, Mr. Davis 
added : 

Sir, when I came into Congress ten years ago, this was a Govern- 
ment of law. I have lived to see it a Government of personal will. 
Congress has dwindled from a power to dictate law and the policy of 
the Government to a commission to audit accounts and to appropriate 
moneys to enable the Executive to execute his will and not ours. I 
would stop at the boundaries of law. When I look around for them I 



310 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

seem to be in a waste; they are as clean gone as the division fences of 
Virginia estates from here to the Rapidan. 

After explaining the efforts of Mr. Ashley and himself to 
remove the objectionable features of the bill as pointed out 
by the two members from Massachusetts [Messrs. Dawes and 
Eliot] he again criticised both with some severity, and con- 
tinued : 

Sir, my successor may vote as he pleases. But when I leave this Hall 
there shall be no vote from the third congressional district of Maryland 
that recognizes anything but the body and mass of the people of any 
State as entitled to govern them, and to govern the people that I repre- 
sent. And they who may wish to substitute one tenth, or any other 
fractional minority, for that great power of the people to govern, may 
take, and shall take, the odium. Ay ! I shall brand it upon them that in 
the middle of the nineteenth century, in the only free Republic that the 
world knows, where alone the principles of popular government are the 
rules of authority, they have gone to the dark ages for their models, 
reviving the wretched examples of the most odious governments that 
the world has ever seen, and propose to stain the national triumph by 
creating a wretched, low, vulgar, corrupt, and cowardly oligarchy to gov- 
ern the freemen of the United States — the national arms to guaranty 
and enforce their oppressions. Not by my vote, sir ; not by my vote ! 

If the majority of the people will not recognize the authority of the 
Constitution of the United States, what does the gentleman say who 
proposes these declaratory resolutions? That they shall come here 
without it ? No, sir ; but I would govern them for a thousand years first 
by the supreme authority of the Constitution which they have defied and 
will not acknowledge. And govern them how? Not by the uncontrolled 
will of this or any other President that ever lived, George Washington 
included. I would govern them by the laws that in the hours of their 
sanity they enacted, unaltered excepting so far as the progress of events 
require that they should be altered ; to the extent that we have proposed 
to alter them in our bill, and no further. I leave their own rules for 
their government, make the President appoint, under his official and 
public responsibility, the officers who are to execute them; and if they 
do not like to be governed in that way, let us trust that the prodigal will^ 
come one day to his senses, and humbly kneeling before the Constitutior 
that he has vainly defied, swear before Almighty God that he will again^ 
be true to it. 

That is my remedy for the grievance. That is what we propose. , 

* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 969-970. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 311 

Though not his last word on the subject of reconstruction, 
this was the last great speech of Mr. Davis in Congress on the 
question of restoring poHtical power to the rebellious States. 
His alliance with Stevens, a somewhat unnatural union, had 
brought him only disaster. As noticed in the preceding 
chapter, he had been defeated for renomination in his district. 
It is thought that disappointment hastened somewhat his 
early death, which occurred toward the close of the year, 
December 30, 1865. Though a touch of pathos may be dis- 
cerned in his concluding remarks, his was not the craven 
spirit that was ready, in the words of Edgerton, to kiss the 
hand that smote him. 

Representative Mallory, of Kentucky, on his motion to lay 
the bill and amendments on the table, called for the yeas and 
nays. The question being taken was decided in the affirm- 
ative; 91 voting to lay the bill and amendments on the table; 
64 were opposed, and 27 did not vote.^ The Democratic 
members were a unit against the measure, and in a body voted 
to lay it on the table. 

The defeat of Davis now appeared complete, but the strug- 
gle was not to be abandoned without another effort. On 
the following day, February 22, 1865, Mr. Wilson from the 
Committee on the Judiciary reported House Bill No. 740, to 
establish the supremacy of the Constitution in the insurrec- 
tionary States, with a substitute which provided that neither 
the people nor the legislature of any rebellious State should 
elect Representatives or Senators to Congress until the Presi- 
dent had proclaimed that armed hostility to the United 
States within such State had ceased ; nor until the people of 
such State had adopted a constitution not repugnant to the 
Constitution and laws of the United States ; nor until by law 
of Congress such State had been declared entitled to repre- 
sentation in the Congress of the United States. 
* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 97097I. 



3J2 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The authority for this bill he professed to find in the fourth 
section of Article L of the Constitution, which reads as 
follows : 

The Times, Places and Manner of holding elections for Senators and 
Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature 
thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators. 

Mr. Wilson was somewhat embarrassed in defending his 
bill. Dawes and Mallory exposed its weakness, and Rep- 
resentative Kernan, of New York, believed it would put it in 
the power of the Executive to say whether States should be 
represented in Congress. Fernando Wood observed that 
neither by that bill nor any other could either House of Con- 
gress be deprived of the right to pass upon the election, re- 
turns and qualifications of members.^ 

Mr. Ashley at this point moved to amend the substitute 
offered by the Committee on the Judiciary by striking out all 
after the enacting clause and inserting the reconstruction bill 
that was tabled the day before. When a point of order was 
raised against its introduction the Speaker said that there was 
an important amendment; the word " white " having been in- 
serted before the expression " male citizen," thus restricting 
the class to be enrolled by the United States marshal. Mr, 
Kelley would amend it by striking out the word " white." To 
this the Ohio member had no personal objection; indeed, he 
was abreast of Mr. Kelley in the matter of the suffrage: the 
only restriction he would impose being that of intelligence. 
Ashley appears, however, to have regarded himself as but the 
mouthpiece of his committee by whose authority he had only 
a few months before inserted a provision in his reconstruction 
bill to recognize the Louisiana and Arkansas governments, 
though he expressly declared on a subsequent occasion that he 
was opposed to such recognition. 
' Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 997-1001. 



AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE 313 

By a vote of 80 to 65 the bill and its amendments was again 
laid on the table. Thirty-seven members abstained from 
voting; fourteen Republicans voted with the Democrats.^ 
This action was taken on the 22d of February, 1865; the 
session closed on the 4th of March following without any 
further attempt to pass the bill. Before the vote was taken 
Ashley stated his sentiments candidly. He wanted a record 
made on the question. " I do not expect," said he, " to pass 
this bill now. At the next session, when a new Congress 
fresh from the people shall have assembled, with the nation 
and its Representatives far in advance of the present Congress, 
I hope to pass even a better bill. Sir, I know that our 
loyal people will never be guilty of the infamy of inviting 
the blacks to unite with them in fighting our battles, and after 
our triumph — a triumph which we never could have achieved 
but for their generous cooperation and aid — deny those 
loyal blacks political rights while consenting that pardoned 
but unrepentant white rebels shall again be clothed with the 
entire political power of these States." ^ The desire to obtain 
negro suffrage explains the inconsistent course of Representa- 
tive Ashley throughout these debates. 

By a singular method of abridging history Mr. Blaine in 
his Tzventy Years of Congress passes without observation the 
attempt to revive the " pocketed " bill, though it was during 
its discussion that there was for the first time unmistakably 
revealed the existence of a schism in the Republican party. 

' Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1002. 
' Ibid. 



IX 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 

A PRECEDING chapter has noticed the result of the 
Presidential election of 1864. It was thought 
proper, however, to reserve for separate treatment 
the various questions presented by the participation in that 
contest of Louisiana and Tennessee, two States reorganized 
under Executive auspices. On the introduction by Mr. Wil- 
son of a joint resolution declaring certain named States not 
entitled to representation in the Electoral College, the entire 
subject came before the House soon after the meeting of 
Congress in December. 

The proposed resolution was read twice and referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary. On the following day, Decem- 
ber 20, 1864, it was reported, ordered to be printed and recom- 
mitted. Under the operation of the previous question it passed 
the House on January 30 succeeding. Its preamble, which was 
favorably considered at the same time, declared that " the 
inhabitants and local authorities of the States of Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee re- 
belled against the Government of the United States, and have 
continued in a state of armed rebellion for more than three 
years, and were in a state of armed rebellion on the 8th of 
November, 1864." 

The joint resolution provided that these States were not 
entitled to representation in the Electoral College for the 
choice of President and Vice-President for the term of office 
314 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 315 

beginning March 4, 1865, and that no electoral votes from 
them, relative to the choice of said officers for that term, 
should be received or counted.^ 

In a modified form the measure subsequently passed the 
Senate, which proposed that there be stricken from the pre- 
amble the words " and were in such condition of armed rebel- 
lion for more than three years," and that there be inserted in 
lieu thereof, " and were in such condition on the 8th day of 
November, 1864, that no valid election for electors of Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, according to the Constitution and 
laws thereof, was held therein on said day." In this amend- 
ment the House promptly concurred, February 6, 1865. 

In the Senate, February i, Mr. Trumbull asked considera- 
tion of the measure inasmuch as the electoral votes were to be 
counted a week later. When the amendment was under dis- 
cussion, Senator Ten Eyck, of New Jersey, moved to strike 
out the word " Louisiana " in the preamble, and added that 
it was a matter of history that the State had reorganized, or 
at least attempted to do so, and in the opinion of many, and 
perhaps most, of her loyal citizens had reorganized as a State. 
It was matter of history that they had elected State officers 
and a State Legislature; that they had elected members to a 
constitutional convention and framed a new constitution for 
that State; that the Legislature passed a law authorizing the 
choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the 
United States in the last Presidential election, and that such 
electors had met and cast their votes. " Under these circum- 
stances," said Mr. Ten Eyck, " I think there is a striking dis- 
tinction between the State of Virginia and the State of Louis- 
iana." The object of his amendment, he stated, was to 
afford opportunity to a loyal people who had suffered all the 
horrors of the rebellion, who had got the better of it, and put 
it under foot, of coming back and resuming their place in the 
^ Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 505. 



3i6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

councils of the nation. He did not tiien desire to make any || 
further remarks.^ 

Senator Trumbull then took up the discussion of Ten Eyck's 
amendment to the amendment. The electoral votes, he said, 
were to be opened and canvassed a week later, and it was 
known to all that no rules for action had ever been adopted 
in that joint convention. He recalled the fact that in 1856 
there arose a question over the counting of the electoral 
vote of Wisconsin. A severe snow storm had prevented the 
electors from meeting at their State capital on the day fixed 
by law, and it was not until the day following that they were 
able to cast their votes for President and Vice-President. 
The question was not then decided, for Buchanan and Breck- 
enridge were the successful candidates in either event, and 
were so declared. 

He believed a similar question was likely to arise when the 
electoral votes would be counted on February 8. It was a 
matter of public notoriety, he continued, that several of the 
States included in the President's proclamation of 1861, Ar- 
kansas, Tennessee and Louisiana, had cast electoral votes. 
There was a question as to their authority to do so in con- 
sequence of the insurrection which prevailed there on the 8th 
of November, when the election took place, and the House of 
Representatives had passed the joint resolution declaring that 
the votes of certain named States should not be counted. The 
motion of the Senator from New Jersey would have the effect 
of counting the vote of Louisiana. " If we decide to receive 
the vote from Louisiana," declared Mr. Trumbull, " it will be 
a decision by the Congress of the United States that the State 
of Louisiana was in such a condition as to vote for President 
and Vice-President on the 8th of November last." 

The alteration proposed by the Committee on the Judiciary, 
said he, was for the purpose of avoiding any such committal 

' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 533. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 317 

on the subject as the motion of the Senator from New Jersey 
brought up. If the preamble " is adopted and the resolution 
passed, Congress will not have decided whether Louisiana is 
in the Union or out of the Union, whether she is a State or 
not a State." It would be time enough, he believed, to de- 
cide that question when it was presented to the Senate. No 
statement of facts, he asserted in reply to Senator Howe, 
accompanied the joint resolution from the Committee on the 
Judiciary; it was a House resolution, and no report accom- 
panied it from the House Committee. 

A large part of Louisiana, he added, was on the 8th of No- 
vember preceding in the possession of a hostile force. In a 
very considerable portion of the State there was no opportunity 
to vote for President or Vice-President, and it might be a very 
serious question whether, when half a State or the third 
of a State was overrun by an enemy, an election held under 
such circumstances and under the auspices of Federal guns 
would be an election which would authorize the Congress of 
the United States, when in joint convention it came to can- 
vass the votes for President and Vice-President, to count 
ballots cast under such circumstances. 

In acting upon the resolution he did not mean to commit 
the Senate one way or another relative to the organization 
which had been formed in Louisiana. A decision to strike 
out Louisiana would be to decide that her electoral vote would 
be received and that on November 8th there was a State gov- 
ernment there. That he did not believe. No evidence, he 
asserted, had been submitted to show how many votes were 
cast. 

Pursuant to an act of Congress the President had declared 
the inhabitants of Louisiana in insurrection against the 
United States. That proclamation had not been recalled. 
" Sir," concluded Mr. Trumbull, " until there shall be some 
action by Congress recognizing the organization which has 



3i8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

been set up in Louisiana, we ought not in my judgment to 
count electoral votes from the State." Whether Congress 
would recognize it, he could not say; that had not yet been 
done, and, until it had been, the electoral vote ought not to be 
counted. He hoped, therefore, that Ten Eyck's amendment 
would not prevail.^ 

Mr. Ten Eyck said it was with great diffidence that he 
undertook to propose an amendment to the resolution; but 
he held the doctrine that these commonwealths having taken 
up their lot and part with their sister States when admitted 
into the Union were not legally out of it; their govern- 
ments had been in abeyance; they had been overrun by the 
feet of hostile armies, and many of their citizens, by usurpa- 
tion and in violation of their duty to their fellow-men and to 
their God, had attempted to carry these States out of the 
Union. 

That being his opinion, whenever these States, by the aid 
of the General Government, or by the efforts of their own 
people, or by the act of both combined, reestablished them- 
selves, or set their State governments in action anew, and 
had commenced again to revolve in their old orbits, he should 
feel it his duty, so far as he was concerned, to extend to 
them all the privileges and all the rights to which the loyal 
people of a loyal State were entitled at the hands of their sister 
States, whether upon the floor of the Senate or anywhere else. 
It was to exclude Louisiana from the operation of the resolu- 
tion that he made his motion. As to those States manifestly 
in the condition described in the preamble there was propriety 
in passing the resolution. 

In reply to an observation of the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, that the majority desired to avoid a committal on 
this subject, Mr. Ten Eyck suggested that it would not, per- 
haps, be amiss to insist that a committal should not be had 
* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 534-535. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 



3^9 



against the interest of the State any more than in its favor, 
and if his amendment involved the question whether Louis- 
iana was in a condition to perform all the functions of a 
State government and to appoint State officers and Senators 
and members of the national House of Representatives, the 
same question was involved in the resolution and it would 
be determined against her if the joint resolution passed as it 
stood; for that would decide that Louisiana was in a state of 
rebellion such as to deprive her of all the powers, rights and 
privileges of a member of the Union. He was not prepared 
to go to that extent. 

From various memorials, papers and documents that had 
come into possession of the Senate, he continued, and were 
published by its order, as well as from information derived 
from other sources, it appeared that nearly, if not quite, a year 
before an election for State officers was held in Louisiana and 
a very large number of votes cast, about twO' thirds or approx- 
imating two thirds of the largest number that had been cast 
at any former election for State officers. Trumbull inter- 
rupted to remark that no such statements had been received 
by the committee. In those localities which voted, perhaps 
two thirds of the former vote had been cast, but not two 
thirds of that cast in the entire State. Ten Eyck replied that 
the vote was 11,414; it was alleged that a large number of 
former voters had entered the rebel army and a great many 
had been killed. He might be in error concerning the whole 
vote of the State. All these elections were free and unin- 
terrupted and without the interference of any military power 
whatever. A person on the ground had declared that " no 
effort whatever was made on the part of the military author- 
ities to influence the citizens of the State, either in the selec- 
tion of candidates or in the election of officers, and that the 
direct influence of the Government of the United States was 
less in Louisiana than in the elections probably of any State of 



320 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the Union; that the officers representing the Government, 
both civil and mihtary, were divided, so far as they entertained 
or expressed opinions, on the question of candidates and upon 
the pohcy pursued in the organization of the government." 
If any mihtary interference was exerted it was in aid of the 
loyal people, and the civil authority was not at all in subor- 
dination to the military. 

In view of the invitation that had been held out by the 
Government to all the loyal people of those States to come 
back and to endeavor to organize themselves anew and, when 
they had gained sufficient strength, to present themselves 
civilly and quietly at the ballot-box to choose their own State 
officers and to choose delegates to form a new State constitu- 
tion, and when they claim the rights of other States, are 
they to be met by the plea that upon certain out-bounds of 
the State there may still be heard the tread of rebel feet ? It 
appeared by all the testimony that the population, the busi- 
ness and the property of Louisiana were confined to the 
cities and regions of country immediately bordering upon the 
river, and that the residue of the State was very sparsely 
settled indeed. That portion not submerged was used 
for planting purposes. The wealth and population of the 
State were confined within a small space and this contracted 
area was chiefly under control of the United States. The 
Presidential electors were chosen by the State Legislature, 
and he did not think that method legal. That is why the vote 
cast in the election did not appear in the testimony submitted 
to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

As to the withdrawal by the President of his proclamation 
declaring the inhabitants of Louisiana in a state of insur- 
rection, if that were the test either the present incumbent or 
his successor could keep the loyal people of those States from 
returning to the Union during the remainder of his admin- 
istration, and, if reelected, for the following term. This 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 321 

even if every soul within the State were loyal and anxious to 
return.^ 

Mr. Howe announced his intention of voting for the amend- 
ment of Ten Eyck, though for reasons very different from 
those which influenced the New Jersey Senator. His support 
would not be controlled by the number of citizens who par- 
ticipated in the choice of electors. " I am governed," said he, 
" by the single fact that a statute of your own, existing at the 
time of that election, declared that the people of that State 
had the right to choose electors, and that certain of them 
did participate in making that choice. The Senator from 
Illinois [Trumbull] says but a small portion of the people 
of the State participated in that choice. Your statute said 
that all might. Does the refusal of a large portion or a small 
portion of the people of a State to participate in an election 
deprive the minority, if you please, no matter how small, 
of their right under your statute?" Besides Louisiana he 
understood that two other States had made choice of electors. 
He would vote for an amendment to strike them out of the 
resolution also. * 

Trumbull argued that a mere refusal to count the electoral 
vote of Louisiana did not settle the question against the exist- 
ing organization. Wisconsin had a right to vote in 1856, 
and nobody supposed otherwise; but many opposed the count- 
ing of that vote. The State organization may be perfect and 
yet its electoral vote rejected. If the Senate had refused to 
count Wisconsin's vote, it would not therefore have decided 
that there was no such State. Ten Eyck promptly indicated 
the weakness of this reasoning by pointing out that the pre- 
amble of the pending resolution declared Louisiana in such 
a condition of rebellion that no election could be had. Senator 
Trumbull then put the case of a foreign enemy having such 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 535-536. 
» Ibid., p. 536. 



322 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

possession of Louisiana that no election could be held 
throughout the State, and asked whether the Senator from 
New Jersey would count the electoral vote of Louisiana when 
not twenty men could have assembled in the State and voted 
for President and Vice-President. If the Senate refused to 
count her vote under such circumstances, would it decide that 
the organization of the State of Louisiana was not to be recog- 
nized, and was repudiated ? Whether the organization estab- 
lished in Louisiana was a valid one was a question which 
would come before the Senate when they inquired into the 
right to seats of those gentlemen who had presented them- 
selves as Senators. 

Replying to an assertion of Senator Howe, who was not in 
his seat, Mr. Trumbull said he would like to see the statute 
which gave Louisiana a right to vote in the Presidential elec- 
tion of 1864. If any such existed it would be repealed by the 
act of Congress which empowered the President to declare 
the people of certain commonwealths in a state of insurrection. 
In referring to the objection of Mr. Ten Eyck that the 
President, if he desired, could keep a State out during his 
entire administration, Senator Trumbull observed that it 
was only necessary for Congress to repeal the act upon which 
the proclamation was based and then the proclamation itself 
would fall. 

The refusal of a State to vote when she had an opportunity 
to do so, said Mr. Trumbull, would be no reason for ex- 
cluding her electoral vote; but the people of Louisiana did not 
have an opportunity unawed by hostile armies and unre^ 
strained by military authority to vote for President and Vice- 
President. This, he said, was not the real point at issue; the 
question for the Senate to consider and determine was whether 
the Legislature of Louisiana was a lawful assembly, for it was 
by that body that electors of President and Vice-President 
were chosen in the election of 1864. 



( 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 323 

Mr. Trumbull believed that on November 8 about three 
fourths of the area of Louisiana was in possession of the Con- 
federates. No person could have voted within that jurisdic- 
tion. Eleven or twelve thousand was the largest vote ever 
cast under these organizations; while the vote of the State, 
when all her legal voters had the privilege of going to the 
polls, was more than 60,000. 

Mr. Ten Eyck stated that 51,000 was the highest vote 
ever cast, and that the average was but 34,000. Trumbull 
believed the Senate should concur in the House resolution 
and that it need not commit itself one way or the other on 
the Louisiana organization. The counting of the electoral 
vote, which pressed for settlement, should soon be de- 
termined.^ 

Mr. Harris thought the question of counting the votes 
could be disposed of without committing the Senate or de- 
ciding the matter of admitting Senators, as was done in the 
case of Wisconsin in 1856. " If we count the votes of these 
States," said he, " the number of votes for Mr. Lincoln and 
Mr. Johnson will be so many; if we reject these votes the 
number of votes will be so many; and in either case these can- 
didates are elected." By this or a similar declaration, the 
phraseology of which was suggested by the precedent of 1856, 
the question could be passed over. He asked the chairman 
of the Committee on the Judiciary why Congress had not the 
power to declare that New York should not vote. He op- 
posed the preamble because he did not believe it true, and he 
denied that the local authorities in Louisiana, Arkansas and 
Tennessee were in rebellion on the 8th of November preceding. 

When, on February 2, Senator Harris resumed his remarks 
he observed that the question as to the power of Congress to 
legislate in relation to the counting of votes for President 
and Vice-President was not considered by the committee. 

' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 535-537- 



324 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Reflection had led him to doubt the competence of Congress 
to legislate on the subject. That body could fix the time for 
choosing electors and specify the time when they should per- 
form the functions of their ofiice. That, he contended, was 
the extent of the power of Congress over the subject. He 
could find no authority in the Constitution, however, which 
empowered Congress to pass a law, for the resolution 
amounted to that, excluding any votes returned to the Vice- 
President. Even if Congress had the authority it was in- 
expedient to exercise it. Why should such extreme power 
be exercised when the necessity did not exist ? The result, it 
was conceded, would be the same whether Congress counted 
the votes of Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas or not. The 
power was not contained in the Constitution. Those States 
specified in the preamble did certainly rebel, but that Louis- 
iana, Arkansas and Tennessee were in that condition on 
November 8 was at least open to question.^ 

Senator Doolittle believed that Congress by legislation 
could provide in advance for the manner of counting electoral 
votes; but that, he insisted, was very different from passing a 
law which declared certain votes null and void after they 
had been cast. That would be retroactive legislation. He 
doubted the power of Congress over the subject of counting 
the electoral votes, beyond that contained in the Constitution. 
" The Congress," he continued, quoting the fourth clause 
of section one of the second article, " may determine the time 
of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give 
their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the 
United States." Pursuant to this provision Congress passed 
the act of January 23, 1845. It was not for the president 
of the Senate to open such as Congress told him to open, but 
he should " open all the certificates " which were sent to him, 
" and the votes shall then be counted." Here, said the Sena- 
' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 537, 548. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 325 

tor, arose the grave question whether the president of the 
joint convention was made the sole judge as to what votes 
should be counted. The question practically came up in 1856, 
but it was not then necessary to decide it, and it was waived 
as not being essential to the result. On the present occasion, 
1865, it was the same, the result of the election would not 
be affected by the matter of counting or not counting the 
votes of Tennessee and Louisiana; but it was not neces- 
sary for Congress to assert a doctrine which in some future 
time might be the very destruction of the Government, namely, 
" That a political party in Congress can decide that certain 
votes of certain States shall be canceled and others shall be 
received. It will never do to set that precedent." It would 
be time enough, he said in conclusion, to meet the question 
when it came up in the joint convention.^ 

Mr. Hale said that he had foreseen the difficulty and at the 
preceding session had introduced a joint resolution directing 
in advance what should be done; but the pressure of other 
business, certainly not more important, prevented action 
thereon. If the result of the Presidential election had de- 
pended upon the votes of Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas 
would the party have submitted against which their votes 
had been cast? The rebellion then existing was caused, he 
believed, by nothing at all in comparison with such a question. 

He denied the assertion of Senator Doolittle that Congress 
had no power over the counting of the electoral votes. Sup- 
pose, he argued, that, contrary to the constitutional provision, 
a member of Congress or any officer of the Federal Govern- 
ment holding an office of profit or trust happened to be an 
elector, would not Congress have power to say that such vote 
of Federal officer should not be counted? 

The framers of the Constitution, he declared, made the 
most ample provision for just such a case. That instrument 

' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 548-549- 



326 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

confers on Congress the power " to make all laws which shall 
be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the fore- 
going powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution 
in the Government of the United States." Was not the 
power to choose a President one vested in the Government 
of the United States ? 

Mr. Hale contended that then, when action by Congress 
would not affect the result of the election, was the time to 
settle the principle, and the precedent could be pointed to 
showing the action and sentiment of Congress at a time when 
there was no inducement to anything but an honest and 
straightforward decision of the case. 

Suppose, he went on, that Nevada while in the territorial 
condition had grown restless under her provincial state and 
had sent certificates signed by her electors, would Congress 
have no authority to say whether they should be counted? 
In Washington's first election the vote of New York State 
was not counted. Now her Senator, Mr. Harris, doubted the 
competence of Congress either to exclude, or refuse to count, 
the votes of a State. ^ 

Mr. Doolittle objected to being quoted quite so strongly as 
to say that Congress had no power over this subject. Con- 
gress had power over the subject, but that power was limited. 
When the Constitution says that the States shall do certain 
things, such as directing the appointment of electors, that is a 
limitation on the power of Congress over the matter. What 
he maintained was that after the ballots had been cast there 
was no power in Congress as a legislative body to declare 
certain votes valid or invalid. The tribunal to which the 
question was referred was the president of the Senate pre- 
siding over the joint convention of both Houses. The power 
in the first instance was with that officer to count or not to 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 549-550. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 327 

count the votes. He was to decide whether they were from 
States or from Territories.^ 

Senator Trumbull maintained that so far from being em- 
powered to decide disputes, the president of the joint con- 
vention was not authorized to even count the votes. In the 
practice of the Government the Vice-President had never 
since the days of Washington counted the votes. The Con- 
stitution says that he shall " open all the certificates and the 
votes shall then be counted." It does not state by whom, 
but it does state that Congress has power to pass all laws 
necessary to carry the instrument into effect. Congress, he 
said, had exercised such power from the beginning. 

There was no legal difference, he asserted, between South 
Carolina and Louisiana. An individual trading in the latter 
State, except under a particular license, could be taken up 
and tried as a felon, and yet " we are told that we cannot 
determine by act of Congress that they cannot elect a Presi- 
dent for us ! " 

Mr. Trumbull contended that if a question arose upon the 
counting of the vote of any State, the joint convention could 
not decide upon it. The bodies would have to separate and, 
by passing a concurrent resolution, each act independently. 
There was no popular election, he said, in the State of Louis- 
iana, but a body assuming to be its Legislature had ap- 
pointed electors of President and Vice-President. He did 
not know whether the new constitution of Louisiana author- 
ized that method. 

The purpose of the Senate, he continued, in amending the 
joint resolution of the House was to avoid declaring that the 
people of Louisiana were on the 8th of November in a state 
of armed insurrection. The preamble, even as it was 
amended, did not wholly satisfy him; he believed that he 
* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 550. 



328 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

would be better pleased if it was altogether omitted. He was 
informed that Tennessee had sent a vote as well as Louisiana. 
The object of the committee was to settle the question before 
the meeting of the joint convention.^ 

Senator Collamer thought that any law honestly intended 
to carry into effect the provisions of the Constitution could 
not be objected to. It could if it opposed or was inconsistent 
with that instrument. There had been legislation on the 
subject and additional action by Congress might be necessary. 
For the resolution he offered the following substitute: 

That the people of no State, the inhabitants whereof have been 
declared in a state of insurrection by virtue of the fifth section of the 
act entitled " An act further to provide for the collection of duties on 
imports, and for other purposes," approved July 13, 1861, shall be re- 
garded as empowered to elect electors of President and Vice-President 
of the United States until said condition of insurrection shall cease and 
be so declared by virtue of a law of the United States.' 

By Mr. Howard the question was regarded as of very great 
importance not only as a precedent for the future, but " as 
indicating the opinion of Congress on the subject, to use a 
familiar term, of ' reconstruction,' or rather the rights of the 
States in rebellion." He believed it clear that the Vice-Presi- 
dent was to open the certificates and that the duty of counting 
devolved upon the two Houses thus assembled. The act of 
1792 seemed so to construe the Constitution. 

" The power of counting the votes," he asserted, " and of 
rejecting votes which are void for fraud or illegality, is, under 
the Constitution, in the joint convention thus assembled." 
There was no doubt about it, he declared, because the Houses 
convened for a great and protective purpose; they were exer- 
cising the tutelary authority of the people, in protecting the 
nation from the imposition of false and fraudulent ballots and 

' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. S50-55i- 
' Ibid., pp. 551-552. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 329 

certificates. The inhabitants of the States mentioned in the 
proclamation of the President were pubHc enemies; therefore 
they had no poHtical rights under the United States. 

" I look upon this measure as necessary," continued Mr. 
Howard, " as one form in which the sense of Congress ought 
to be expressed against any hasty attempt to readmit these 
rebellious States into the Union." For one, he would require 
the loyalty and friendliness of a majority of the people of the 
rebellious States to be proved before readmitting any of them. 
" The theory of our Government," he went on, " is different 
from that of almost every other government on earth. It is 
that the will of the majority shall govern ; in common phrase, 
the majority of the people, but practically the majority of the 
voting population." 

In conclusion he declared that it was " the bounden duty of 
Congress, in every case, to keep out of the Union every one 
of these eleven seceded States until, in pursuance of our laws, 
passed or to be passed, it has become perfectly evident to us 
that there is in such a State a clear, absolute majority of its 
voting population friendly to the Government of the United 
States, and willing to proceed in the discharge of their func- 
tions as a State; and, until that is done, you may be perfectly 
sure, so long as I hold a seat in this body, my vote will be 
given against any such proposal. I never will consent to ad- 
mit into this Union a State a majority of whose people are 
hostile and unfriendly to the Government of my country. I 
prefer to hold them in tutelage (for that is really the word) 
one year, five years, ten years, even twenty years, rather than 
run the risk of a repetition of this rebellion, which has cost 
us so much blood and treasure." ^ 

Ten Eyck, considering Louisiana as the strongest case, men- 
tioned it in preference to Arkansas or Tennessee, and, from a 
paper furnished by a gentleman who was familiar with the 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 553-554- 



330 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

situation there, was able to state that " eleven thousand four 
hundred and fourteen votes were polled at this election. The 
average vote for ten years prior to the rebellion in these 
parishes was fifteen to sixteen thousand." The same par- 
ishes cast their highest vote, 21,000, in i860. He expressed 
a wish to save Tennessee also from the effect of the resolution, 
and declared that he did not see how the Vice-President-elect, 
an alien, could preside over the Senate. Further, a vote in 
favor of the resolution prejudged the case of the Senators and 
the legality of the Legislature which sent them.^ 

Senator Pomeroy did not suppose that States unrepresented 
in either House could be represented in the Electoral College. 
He criticised the correctness of the preamble so far as it re- 
lated to Arkansas. The rebel governor as well as the rebel 
legislature, he said, was driven out long ago. 

" Arkansas," he continued, " has not voted at all in the 
Presidential election. . . . Under the instructions and 
impressions that the members from Arkansas received here 
last session, they distinctly understood that States not repre- 
sented in either branch of Congress would have no right to 
vote at the Presidential election. They returned to Arkansas 
and so reported, and they never had any election ; there are no 
votes here from that State. They have been in suspense 
awaiting the action of Congress." The resolution itself did 
not, of course, affect Arkansas, for there were no votes from 
that State to be counted. ^ 

Mr. Cowan, probably adopting a hint dropped by Senator 
Ten Eyck, noticed the fact that the proclamation of January 
I, 1863, exempted from its operations thirteen named parishes 
of Louisiana because no rebellion existed in them. The 
validity of that decree had been recognized, while the proc- 
lamation of December 8 following invited the people of 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 554-555- 
'Ibid., pp. 555-556. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 331 

Louisiana and other States to resume their rights. The ques- 
tion was whether the arrangements of the President were to 
be executed in good faith. 

It was the duty of the Executive, he continued, " to put 
down this rebelHon, to relieve the people from its oppression, 
and to restore them precisely to where they were when the 
rebellion found them. If that is done, in ten days after his 
proclamation, eo instanti, the people resume their rights and 
functions; and in this case I understand they are not only in 
possession of the right, but are actually in the enjoyment of 
it, having a regularly organized government with all the ma- 
chinery necessary and proper to a government." He be- 
lieved that men and money were furnished the President to 
sustain State governments and make them supreme within 
their own limits. 

Concluding this portion of his remarks he said : " Mr. 
President, this involves a direct conflict between the Legis- 
lative and Executive bodies of this Government, and at this 
time I am of opinion that we cannot afford to enter into that 
conflict." ^ 

Senator Powell, of Kentucky, said that when it was asserted 
that General Banks did not interfere in the Louisiana election 
the statement was not true, for there could be no greater in- 
terference in the elections of a State than to alter the qualifica- 
tions of voters. He declared himself " opposed to admitting 
on this floor persons who are elected under the bayonet in- 
fluence in any way whatever. I very well know that there 
was no free expression of the people of Louisiana in these 
elections. I know that they but obeyed the behests of the 
military, whatever commanders may say about it. . . . 
But for its tragical results upon republican liberty it [the 
election] would be the greatest of farces." 

The Kentucky member believed that the rebellious States 
' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 556. 



332 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

were still in the Union, and when a majority of the people 
in any of them returned to loyalty, when their governments 
were organized, their Senators and Representatives should be 
received. ^ 

Cowan, entering again into the discussion, said : " We are 
bound by the Constitution to preserve the Union and to pre- 
serve the rights of the people under the Union; not merely 
the rights of a majority, but the rights of the people, of all 
the people, and of any number of the people however small. 
What are we to do ? A minority of the people come forward 
and say, ' If you aid us for a while we can preserve this State 
and keep her in the Union.' ' But no,' according to the doc- 
trine advanced here, ' there must be a majority of you 
before we can recognize you as in the Union.' 
That will be very poor encouragement for the loyal men of the 
rebel States to try and bring back their people to reason." 
The Pennsylvania Senator was one of the few who ad- 
hered to the opinion that the masses of men at the South 
were not disloyal; that it was a leaders' rebellion. ^ 

Sherman, of Ohio, described the scene in the joint con- 
vention of 1856 when Humphrey Marshall wanted to speak 
and Mr. Mason, president of the Senate, refused to recognize 
him. Speaker Banks, however, did recognize him; upon this, 
Mason and others left the convention, and confusion ensued; 
that, Mr. Sherman believed, was a reason why the resolution 
should be disposed of.^ 

Mr. Wade said : " About a year ago Congress, anticipating 
that such questions as this might arise, in my judgment very 
wisely framed a law and passed it through both branches with 
the hope of settling this matter in advance. That law was 
made upon great deliberation in both bodies of Congress; 

' Globe. Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 557-558. 
' Ibid., p. 558. 
• Ibid. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 333 

it received a very large vote in each House. It was very 
proper in my judgment that Congress should fix the matter 
then, because everybody could anticipate that a question of 
the most serious danger to the Republic might arise in the 
then approaching Presidential election, which might endanger 
the stability of our Union, and which might under certain cir- 
cumstances precipitate these Northern States into a civil war. 
Apprehending that such a question might arise, Congress 
wisely, in my judgment, provided against it; but the Presi- 
dent did not agree with them, and he vetoed their bill, leav- 
ing the question open with all its dangers, which, thank God, 
have not arisen." 

The President, added Mr. Wade, chose to pocket the bill, 
" and, as I suppose, he did it in defence of the proclamation 
which he had put forth, declaring that whenever a tenth part 
of the people of a State would come back, he would recognize 
them as the State and as part and parcel of this Govern- 
ment — a proposition which, with all my respect for the Chief 
Magistrate, I am bound to say is the most absurd and im- 
practicable that ever haunted the imagination of a states- 
man. . . . And I must say of that proclamation of the 
President that it was the most contentious, the most an- 
archical, the most dangerous proposition that was ever put 
'forth for the government of a free people. 

" . . .1 had a conversation with the now Vice-Presi- 
dent-elect of the United States on that subject, and with 
other gentlemen on the Union side in the Southern States, 
and I do not know of one of them who was not filled with the 
deepest apprehension that if this principle should prevail they 
would be annihilated by the nine tenths." * 

As to permitting citizens of Louisiana who were serving 
in the army and navy to vote in the. election of February 22, 
1864, Mr. Doolittle observed : " We have done the same thing 

' Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 576-582. 



334 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

in Wisconsin, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, in New York, all 
growing out of exigencies which have occurred since this 
rebellion began, passing laws, authorizing men, although in 
the Army of the United States, still to take part in the elec- 
tions, providing that they should not be deprived of their 
rights of citizenship because they had enlisted in the Army to 
bear all the sacrifices which are necessary to defend their 
country in this struggle. And, sir, I maintain that there 
was nothing wrong in this." ^ Even if it were wrong, only 
808 soldiers, he asserted, participated in the election. A 
separate registry of this vote had been kept by General Banks. 
So far, therefore, from being a military usurpation it was an 
attempt of the President to lay down the military power. 
This he was endeavoring in good faith to do. 

After a somewhat excited defence of the Administration 
by Senator Doolittle, and severe attacks on both President 
Lincoln and General Banks by Mr. Powell and others. Ten 
Eyck's motion to strike out Louisiana from the joint resolu- 
tion was defeated, February 3, 1865, by a vote of 22 to 16.* 
Lane's motion immediately after to strike out the preamble, 
which would leave only an unmeaning resolution, was lost by 
a vote of 30 nays to 12 yeas.^ 

Senator Harris proposed to amend Mr. Collamer's substi- 
tute by resolving, " That it is inexpedient to determine the 
question as to the validity of the election of electors in the 
said States of Tennessee and Louisiana, and that in counting 
the votes for President and Vice-President the result be de- 
clared as it would stand if the votes of the said States were 
counted, and also as it would stand if the votes of the said 
States were excluded, such result being the same in either 
case." By nearly the same majority this proposition also was 
voted down without much discussion.* 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 575. ^ Ibid., pp. 576-582. 

• Ibid., p. 582. - Ibid., p. 583. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 335 

Reverdy Johnson, who favored the House resolution as 
amended by the Committee on the Judiciary, did not think 
the rebellious States were out of the Union, and asserted that 
there was no power in any branch of Government to declare 
war against a State. Referring to the Whiskey Insurrection 
in Washington's administration, he said that Congress passed 
no act declaring it at an end. The President declared it. It 
ended itself. The insurrectionists laid down their arms, and 
expressed willingness to yield obedience to the United States; 
that ended the insurrection and disbanded the Federal forces, 
" and that happening, the State of Pennsylvania, every part 
of it, stood exactly in the relation, for all purposes, in which 
the State and every part of it stood before the insurrection 
was commenced." ^ 

Mr. Collamer said that the real point in Senator Johnson's 
argument was whether Congress had anything to do in the 
reorganization or reestablishment of those States. Mr. 
Johnson, continued the Senator from Vermont, seemed to 
think not. On resuming his speech, February 4, 1865, he 
inquired : " When will, and when ought, Congress to admit 
these States as being in their normal condition ? When they 
see that they furnish evidence of it. It is not enough that 
they stop their hostility and are repentant. They should 
present fruits meet for repentance. They should furnish to 
us by their actions some evidence that the condition of 
loyalty and obedience is their true condition again, and 
Congress must pass upon it; otherwise we have no 
securities. It is not enough that they lay down their 
arms. Our courts should be established, our taxes 
should be gathered, our duties should be collected in those 
States; and before they come here to perform their duties 
or privileges again as members of this Union, they should 
place themselves in an attitude showing to us that they have 
' Globe, Part I„ 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 585. 



336 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

truly taken that position, and we should pass upon it; and I 
insist that the President, making peace with them, if you 
please, by surceasing military operations, does not alter their 
status until Congress passes upon it. ... I believe that 
when reestablishing the condition of peace with that people, 
Congress, representing the United States, has power, in ending 
this war as any other war, to get some security for the 
future." 

The guaranty clause, Mr. Collamer asserted, implied that 
States were to be kept in the Union; it was inserted for the 
security of the minority in a State, though there might be 
but one man there to redeem Sodom. No one State could 
discharge the United States from a performance of that ob- 
ligation. To keep it Congress, if it was essential to main- 
taining a republican form of government, could abolish 
slavery if that institution stood in the way of performing the 
guaranty. Before restoring the States, he added in con- 
clusion, the President would need the assistance of Congress, 
else how could he get rid of the confiscation act.* 

Collamer's substitute, which shared the fate of the amend- 
ment offered by Ten Eyck, could be construed only by an ex- 
amination of the President's proclamation to ascertain what 
States were in insurrection. 

To the preamble, which stated that four years earlier certain 
designated States had rebelled, and on the 8th of Novem- 
ber preceding were in such condition of rebellion that no 
valid election for the choice of electors of President and 
Vice-President could be held there, Senator Pomeroy ob- 
jected that the rebel governor of Arkansas had been killed, 
and the entire disloyal government destroyed. When the 
election was held the real local authorities in that State were 
Union men. It would not be true, as the preamble declared, 
that these authorities were in rebellion on November 8. The 

^ Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 591. 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 337 

terms of the disloyal officials in Arkansas had expired by 
limitation; the chief men in that government were not alive 
to exert any influence if they were disposed to do so. It 
was not true to say that they made war on the United States 
on the 8th of November, 1864, or that they were then in 
condition to do so. Since the rebellion began they never had 
but one election. 

Pomeroy's amendment to substitute for " state of rebel- 
lion " the word " condition " was carried by a vote of 26 to 
13. The preamble, as thus perfected, declared that certain 
States had rebelled four years before, and on November 8 
were in such " condition " that no valid election was held.^ 

Mr. Lane believed that for the protection of Union men 
in those States a loyal government was indispensable, and 
that it did more to demoralize the insurgents and to close out 
the rebellion than any other act that could be accomplished. 
It would be worth more than all the victories that could be 
gained in the field.^ 

Senator Howe in closing the debate observed that four days 
had been spent in discussing not the passage of the joint 
resolution, but the reason to be assigned in its preamble for 
excluding the vote of certain States. It belonged to the 
legislatures of those commonwealths, he maintained, to declare 
whether valid elections had been held there. He distrusted 
that sort of legislation, and in conclusion said : " If you will 
take hold of the question of the political relations of these 
communities, and if you will tell what is the truth, and has 
been the truth since 1861, that there are no State organizations 
there, no State governments, I am with you. When you estab- 
lish that, you know what they may and what they may not 
do." 3 

'■ Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 593, 
' Ibid., p. 594. 
•Ibid., pp. 594 595- 



338 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

By a vote of 29 to 10 the joint resolution was passed on 
February 4. In the record the names of Cowan, DooHttle, 
Harris, Howe, Lane of Kansas, Nesmith, Saulsbury, Ten 
Eyck, Van Winkle and Willey appear in opposition.^ 

For the purpose of canvassing the electoral votes, both 
Houses assembled in joint convention four days later, Feb- 
ruary 8, 1865. The Vice-President in discharge of his duty 
proceeded to open and hand to the tellers the votes of the 
several States, beginning with Maine. No one dissenting 
it was agreed on a suggestion by Senator Wade to dispense 
with the reading of everything in the certificate except the 
result of the vote. 

When all the votes had been recorded. Cowan said : " Mr. 
President, I inquire whether there are any further returns to 
be counted." The Vice-President replied in the negative. 
To his former question Mr. Cowan then added, " And if 
there be, I would inquire why they are not submitted to this 
body in joint convention, which is alone capable of determin- 
ing whether they should be counted or not." The Vice- 
President acknowledged that he had in his possession returns 
from the States of Louisiana and Tennessee, but in obedi- 
ence to the law of the land " the Chair holds it to be his 
duty not to present them to the convention." The Pennsyl- 
vania Senator thereupon inquired whether the joint resolu- 
tion had been signed by the President, and was informed that 
while the official communication of its approval had not been 
received by either House, the Chair had been apprised that 
the resolution had received the Executive approval. 

Cowan then suggested that, as a motion was not in order, 
the votes of Louisiana and Tennessee be counted, and that 
the convention determine the fact. Representative Cox im- 
mediately recommended the reading of the joint rule under 
which both Houses were then acting. On being directed by 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cons:., p. 595- 



THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA 339 

the Vice-President the secretary compHed with this sugges- 
tion. 

Thaddeus Stevens did not think any question had arisen 
which required the two Houses to separate, for that, accord- 
ing to the language of the joint resolution, could only occur 
upon the reading of those returns which had been opened 
by the president of the convention. 

Mr. Cowan did what he could to bring the question before 
the two Houses, and failing, withdrew it. The result, after 
some further effort to call up the returns from Louisiana and 
Tennessee, was then announced. The tellers reported that for 
President of the United States Abraham Lincoln had re- 
ceived 212, and George B. McClellan 21 votes; that for 
Vice-President Andrew Johnson had received 212, and George 
H. Pendleton 21 votes.^ 

On February 10 the president pro tempore laid before the 
Senate the following communication from Mr. Lincoln : 

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives: 

The joint resolution entitled " Joint resolution declaring certain States 
not entitled to representation in the Electoral College " has been signed 
by the Executive, in deference to the view of Congress implied in its 
passage and presentation to him. In his own view, however, the two 
Houses of Congress, convened under the twelfth article of the Constitu- 
tion, have complete power to exclude from counting all electoral votes 
deemed by them to be illegal ; and it is not competent for the Executive 
to defeat or obstruct that power by a veto, as would be the case if his 
action were at all essential in the matter. He disclaims all right of the 
Executive to interfere in any way in the matter of canvassing or 
counting electoral votes, and he also disclaims that, by signing said 
resolution, he has expressed any opinion on the recitals of the preamble, 
or any judgment of his own upon the subject of the resolution.* 

Except for a brief speech by Reverdy Johnson this message 
was received in silence by the Senate. Mr. Johnson com- 
mented upon the extraordinary course of the President, whose 

* The subject of the counting of the electoral votes will be found in the 
Congressional Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 668-669. 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 711. 



340 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

duty, he said, was clearly to approve or to disapprove, not 
virtually to read a lecture to the Senate as he had done. The 
Maryland member did not doubt that the motives of the 
President were perfectly correct and patriotic, but it was 
not the first time, he asserted, that that had been done. The 
bill for the reconstruction of the seceded States passed both 
Houses by an overwhelming majority; but it was defeated 
by the President's failure to approve, and the adjournment 
of Congress before ten days elapsed. In his manifesto or 
proclamation he approved portions and disapproved others.^ 
Short as this paper was, however, it was entirely charac- 
teristic of the President. This little lesson in constitutional 
law is only another proof that Mr. Lincoln possessed in an 
eminent degree the faculty of seeing clearly through the 
most intricate question. His disposal of this difficulty as well 
as his reflections on Congress remind one of the facility with 
which he straightened out for General Butler the liquor prob- 
lem at Norfolk. The succeeding chapter will describe an- 
other phase of the controversy between the political depart- 
ments of the Government. 

• ^ Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 711. 



X 

SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 

AT the opening of its second session, December 5, 
1864, the Speaker of the Thirty-eighth Congress 
laid before the House the credentials of W. D. 
Mann, T. M. Wells, Robert W. Taliaferro, A. P. Field and 
M. F. Bonzano, who claimed seats as Representatives from 
the State of Louisiana. A petition, signed by numerous 
citizens of that commonwealth, protesting against the admis- 
sion of these claimants, was referred at the same time on 
motion of Henry Winter Davis to the Committee of Elections 
in connection with their credentials, which had already re- 
ceived the same direction. On the 13th this remonstrance 
was ordered to be printed. 

Mr. Dawes on February 1 1 following reported that " M. 
F. Bonzano is entitled to a seat in this House as a Represent- 
ative from the First Congressional District of Louisiana.'' 
Six days later he presented a report and resolutions from his 
committee to the eflfect that Messrs. Field and Mann from the 
Second and Third Districts, respectively, were also entitled 
to seats. These reports with the accompanying resolutions 
were laid on the table and ordered to be printed. 

No further action was taken on the question of their ad- 
mission, but on March 3, 1865, Chairman Dawes by unani- 
mous consent reported from the Committee of Elections a 
resolution that there be paid to each of the Louisiana claim- 
ants for compensation, expenses and mileage the sum of 
341 



342 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

$2,000 and a like amount to T. M. Jacks, J. M. Johnson and 
A. A. C. Rogers, claimants from Arkansas. 

The House, however, was not nearly so unanimous as its 
committee. Mr. Washburne remarked that Congress, by- 
allowing at the last session the sum of $1,500 to one gen- 
tleman who claimed a seat, had fixed a sort of rule in such 
cases. That amount he would, probably, not object to paying 
to the present applicants; but if large payments, such as the 
compensation proposed by the resolution, were made to men 
coming to the Capitol it was feared they might not soon stop. 

Representative Johnson, of Pennsylvania, believed that re- 
gardless of their right to seats they should be compensated 
because they had been encouraged to come; they appeared at 
the Capitol, he asserted, with an honest expectation of getting 
seats, and in an honest effort to restore popular government 
to their States. 

Mr. Dawes declared that they came not as adventurers but 
under what they supposed was the policy of the General 
Government; hence the favorable recommendation of the 
committee. When he demanded the previous question, 
Representative Brandegee moved to lay the resolution on 
the table. Thaddeus Stevens asked to strike out the words 
" claimants for seats." To this the Massachusetts member 
offered no objection. " I do not want to recognize the idea," 
added Stevens, " that anybody on earth thinks that these men 
are entitled to seats." ^ This request, however, was denied, 
and the resolution was then adopted. 

It was during their three months' sojourn in Washington 
that one of the claimants, A. P. Field, committed an assault 
upon Representative William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, 
whom he regarded as the chief obstacle to their admission. 
This occurrence, which took place on February 20 at the 
Willard Hotel, was due, no doubt, to the artificial excitement 
* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1395. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 



343 



of the Louisiana claimant, but was without influence upon 
the action of the House.* 

The General Assembly of Louisiana, as previously related, 
had chosen Charles Smith and R. King Cutler as United 
States Senators. With the Representatives-elect these gen- 
tlemen also appeared in Washington as claimants for seats. 
On December 7, two days after Congress assembled, the 
president pro tempore presented certain proceedings of the 
Louisiana Legislature declaratory of the election of Smith 
and Cutler. The papers, it was announced, would lie on the 
table unless otherwise ordered. Just as Henry Winter Davis 
had done in the House, Senator Wade offered a memorial 
from Louisiana citizens remonstrating against their admis- 
sion, and also against the reception of any electoral vote from 
that State. On his motion it was agreed that all documents 
pertaining to the subject be printed. On the following day, 
December 8, the credentials as well as the remonstrance were 
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. 

Senator Trumbull on February 17 succeeding made a re- 
port from his committee, and offered a joint resolution rela- 
tive to the credentials of Smith and Cutler. At the request of 
Charles Sumner the resolution was read at length and was 
as follows : 

That the United States do hereby recognize the government of the 
State of Louisiana, inaugurated under and by the convention which 
assembled on the 6th day of April, A. D., 1864, at the city of New 
Orleans, as the legitimate government of the said State, and entitled to 
the guarantees and all other rights of a State government under the 
Constitution of the United States.' 

This resolution was limited to Louisiana because the facts, 
while in many respects similar, were not identical with those 
in the case of Arkansas. Besides, when the subject first came 

^ Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 971-974. 
*lbid., p. 903. 






344 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

up in committee the Arkansas case had not been presented, 
though it arose before Louisiana had been disposed of. 
Trumbull believed it the intention of the committee to act 
immediately upon Arkansas when the case of Louisiana had 
been considered.^ 

Sumner moved, February 23, to strike out all of the joint 
resolution except the enacting clause, and to substitute the 
following : 

That neither the people nor the Legislature of any State, the people 
of which were declared to be in insurrection against the United States 
by the proclamation of the President, dated August 16, 1861, shall here- 
after elect Representatives or Senators to the Congress of the United 
States until the President, by proclamation, shall have declared that 
armed hostility to the Government of the United States v^^ithin such 
State has ceased; nor until the people of such State shall have adopted 
a constitution of government not repugnant to the Constitution and 
laws of the United States; nor until, by a law of Congress, such State 
shall have been declared to be entitled to representation in the Congress 
of the United States of America. ' 

To this amendment Senator Trumbull objected that it 
would put it in the power of the President, by refusing to issue 
his proclamation, to l^eep a State out forever. Sumner's sub- 
stitute was promptly defeated by a vote of 29 to 8." 

Of the members of the committee Powell alone opposed 
the resolution offered by Mr. Trumbull. The chief object in 
recognizing the government of Louisiana at that time, said 
the Kentucky Senator, was to allow that State to vote for the 
proposed amendment of the Constitution; to do that effectu- 
ally those favorable to the resolution desired first to admit ; 
her Senators and Representatives; their admission would be 
the immediate effect of its passage. 

A just conclusion on that subject could be reached only ' 
by information concerning the action of the President, of the 

'Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. ion. 

* Ibid. 

• Ibid. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 345 

military, and of the people of Louisiana in connection with 
the election. He opposed the loyal government because it 
was not formed by the people of that State; however, he did 
not want to be classed with those who thought Louisiana out 
of the Union. He believed that something approximating a 
majority of her people should indicate a willingness to re- 
turn to the Union, and should participate in the movement 
for reorganization. The formation of the existing govern- 
ment, he asserted, was controlled and influenced by persons 
who were not citizens of Louisiana, and, he added, " It is 
a government formed really and virtually by the military 
power of the United States, using as instruments delegates 
who were elected under and by force of the bayonet." 

Before Senators could vote for the resolution, he con- 
tinued, they must maintain the doctrine announced in the 
President's proclamation of December 8, 1863, when he pro- 
posed that one tenth of the loyal voters in a State who would 
comply with the conditions therein prescribed, could form a 
State government; they must further maintain that the Presi- 
dent, of his own volition, had power by decretal order to alter 
the constitution of a State; that the President had power to 
prescribe the qualifications both of voters and candidates for 
office in the States ; finally they must believe that not only did 
the President possess these powers, but that Major-General 
Banks, in virtue of his office, possessed them in Louisiana. 

Mr. Powell proposed to show that not only did Louisiana 
people not act of their own volition, but that " they were co- 
erced to do what they did.'' The constitution of that State, 
he asserted, was not made by the free suffrage of the people. 

The creation of a State government is a purely civil act ; the 
people must act without restraint. He had never heard any 
Senator say that the President could legitimately exercise the 
power assumed in his proclamation of December 8, 1863. 
Mr. Powell objected to the oath which was to be taken as 



346 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

a condition precedent to becoming a qualified elector in one 
of the revolted States, especially to that portion which prom- 
ised support of all future proclamations of the President on 
the question of slavery. " Why, sir," he exclaimed, " the 
President may proclaim that the negro shall be the master 
and the white man the slave ; that the negro shall be the voter 
and the white man deprived of the right of suffrage; and yet 
this oath requires the man taking it to swear in advance 
that he would support even such a measure as that. . . . 

" At the very threshold, then,'' he continued, " you repudiate 
the great principle of republican government that majorities 
shall rule. Here you propose to say not that majorities, but 
that less than one tenth shall rule." It was intimated by the 
President that when they made a constitution it must not rec- 
ognize African slavery. General Banks, carrying out the 
suggestion of the President, as well as what had been dis- 
tinctly stated to General Steele in relation to Arkansas, took it 
upon himself to alter the constitution of Louisiana in that 
respect. 

Whence does the President, it was asked, derive the power 
to prescribe qualifications for either electors or candidates? 
The proclamation, the Kentucky Senator asserted, was the 
basis of the whole proceeding, and those who voted for the 
resolution endorsed the proclamation. 

Mr. Powell then reviewed the acts and read the proclama- 
tion of General Banks, whose conduct he denounced for pre- 
suming to declare certain parts of the Louisiana constitution 
no longer applicable to any class of persons in that State, and, 
therefore, inoperative and void. 

He further objected that Banks had no authority to call 
the convention, for the constitution of Louisiana could be 
lawfully amended in only the mode pointed out by itself. 
The President's proclamation, he added, would allow only 
those to vote who were qualified electors under the funda- 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 347 

mental law of the State; those in the army and navy were 
not, but General Banks in his ukase of February 13, 1864, 
allowed them to participate in the election. 

He also invited attention to the action of the Department 
Commander in designating provost marshals to take care that 
the polls were properly opened, in the absence of the sheriffs, 
and that suitable persons were appointed judges of election 
and so forth. Of the 11,414 votes he asserted that 808 were 
cast by soldiers who under the President's proclamation 
were not legal voters. The fact, added Mr. Powell, that 
General Banks after the inauguration of Hahn as governor 
continued to issue proclamations shows that the civil was con- 
trolled by the military authority. 

Passing on to a discussion of the statement of Banks be- 
fore the Committee on the Judiciary that the military did not 
interfere in the election of February 22, Senator Powell 
quoted the following passages from a proclamation of the 
Department Commander: 

Those who have exercised or are entitled to the rights of citizens of 
the United States will be required to participate in the measures neces- 
sary for the reestablishment of civil government. ... It is there- 
fore a solemn duty resting upon all persons to assist in the earliest 
possible restoration of civil government. Let them participate in the 
measures suggested for this purpose. Opinion is free and candidates are 
numerous. Open hostility cannot be permitted. Indifference will be 
treated as a crime, and faction as treason. 

" Talk to me," exclaimed Mr. Powell, " of freedom of 
election under such military orders! Why, sir, there was 
but one free man, in my opinion, in all Louisiana at that time, 
and that was Major-General Banks; and I do not know that 
he was free, for he was serving his master at the White 
House." The fundamental law there was martial law, which 
is but the will of the commander-in-chief, and under that law 
he could have beheaded them if they did not vote. 

From beginning to end, he continued, the coercive finger 



348 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of the military was engaged in the establishment of that 
government. Under the various proclamations even Union- 
ists, men who had always been loyal, could not vote unless 
they took the oath required in the President's proclamation. 
There was a large class of loyal men in Louisiana, he said, 
who refused to take that oath, for there had been presented 
to the Judiciary Committee an earnest protest signed by 
Thomas J. Durant and thirty-one others, influential Union 
men of that State, against the admission of Senators and 
Representatives and against counting its electoral vote. 
Those Senators, he added toward the conclusion of his re- 
marks, who only a few days before opposed the counting of 
Louisiana's electoral vote should now vote against the reso- 
lution acknowledging the government which appointed the 
Senators that are claiming seats. ^ 

Sumner and Davis referred to the resolution as a shadow. 
To this Mr. Doolittle replied that the vote of Louisiana 
might be necessary to secure the constitutional amendment, 
and that the new constitution of that State had struck the 
shackles from 90,000 slaves not reached by the Emancipation 
Proclamation. 

Mr. Henderson, who favored the resolution, secured the 
floor, and observed, among other things, that Louisiana and 
Arkansas did not claim that they were yet strong enough to 
maintain their governments without the military aid of the 
nation; but neither was Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky 
or Missouri; even Ohio, Indiana or Illinois, he said, could 
not without national assistance maintain their State organiza- 
tions for sixty days against the Confederate armies. 

" If we would have State governments," said Mr. Hender- 
son, " we must begin somewhere and at some time." It was 
nonsensical, he argued to talk of restoring the Union, while 
keeping the loyal people in those States for all time to come 

* Globe, Part I., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1061-1064. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 



349 



under military domination, *'We must declare the right in 
Congress," he added, " to make and establish these govern- 
ments for the States, or permit the President, under military 
law, to set them up, or we must recognize such as the loyal 
people may set up for themselves." If, as Madison thought, 
Congress cannot make them, but can only guarantee such as 
already exist and are found to be republican in form, it must 
be left with the President, under his power as the head of the 
army, or to the people of the respective States. If left entirely 
with the President he might by military force impose upon the 
State a constitution against the wishes of both the loyal and 
disloyal. The Senator frankly admitted that neither House 
would be under any obligation to receive members sent from a 
State so constituted. 

" But," he went on to say, " if the people — the loyal 
masses, whether a majority or a minority of the whole voting 
population as formerly known — participated in its creation 
and acquiesce in the revival of the State government, the case 
though inaugurated by the President in my judgment would 
be very different. According to the theory of our Govern- 
ment, and its practice in all its past time in analogous cases, 
it would seem that whether Congress or the President inau- 
gurated the proceeding, the constitution can only receive its 
validity and authority from the approval or acquiescence of 
the people to be affected; and that brings me to consider 
how the people in the seceded States shall revive their gov- 
ernments, and who are the legally qualified voters for that 
purpose in these States. 

" At the threshold of the inquiry we are met with the ob- 
jection that the States are now without officers of any kind 
legally elected, and that of themselves they are powerless to 
inaugurate any movement to set up a loyal government. It 
is said they have no officials to superintend the election, to 
count the votes, and grant certificates of election. However 



350 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

desirable these formalities may be, it has not been the uni- 
form practice of Congress to require them." 

In the case of California, continued Mr. Henderson, the 
first election was called by the military order of a subordinate 
officer of the army, a delegate convention was chosen, a con- 
stitution was framed by that assembly and submitted to Con- 
gress. It was accepted as republican in form, and under it a 
State government was inaugurated that for fifteen years 
had been administered with the greatest success. The terri- 
tory, he said, was wholly without civil authorities recog- 
nized by the United States. Congress had passed no enabling 
act, had prescribed no forms of proceeding, had failed to 
fix the qualifications of voters, had appointed no judges of 
election or other officers to count and certify the votes; yet 
the act, however informal, was ratified because the constitu- 
tion on its face was unobjectionable in form, and it was 
believed that the people interested acquiesced in the govern- 
ment it established. 

If the people of Rhode Island, added Mr. Henderson, had 
acquiesced in the government set up under Dorr, Congress 
and the Executive would have recognized it as legitimate. 
The Senator from Kentucky contended that although a major- 
ity of the legal and qualified voters of Louisiana should acqui- 
esce in the new constitution Congress could not admit the 
State. In support of his view Mr. Henderson pointed to the 
State government of Missouri, which was the offspring of a 
movement purely revolutionary. 

In the States whose representatives were seeking admission 
to Congress but one government asked recognition, and what 
if these organizations were of revolutionary origin ? — the 
revolution was on the side of loyalty. Revolutionary gov- 
ernments had been accepted in time of peace — governments 
springing up in the midst of anarchy, without the sanctions! 
of regularity; why, he asked, should they be rejected now 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 



351 



when they were needed to protect the loyal inhabitants of 
the respective States and to aid the nation in vindicating its 
lost authority ? 

The assertion that on the face of these constitutions they 
were republican in form Senator Sumner denied.. They did 
not follow out the principles of the Federal Constitution. This 
general answer was unsatisfactory, and Mr. Henderson said 
that the only question with him was how could he best get 
these States performing their legitimate functions in the Union 
again. If, as the Massachusetts Senator maintained, the act 
of secession took the States out, why could not the act of loyal 
men bring them back? If secession, he argued, was potent 
enough to take a State out, and that was mere revolution, why 
could not the loyal men perfect a revolution on the side of 
Government as well as rebels perfect a revolution on the side 
of secession, outrage and wrong ? 

The doctrine that secession took the States out of the 
Union, Sumner objected to have imputed to him. A subse- 
quent remark indicated one ground of his opposition to the 
government of Louisiana. *' If the loyal men, white and 
black, recognize it, then," he declared, " it will be republican 
in form. Unless that is done, it will not be. 

When asked whether Congress could interfere with the 
right of suffrage in one of the States, Sumner evaded a can- 
did reply, and concealed his meaning under these words: 
" It is the bounden duty of the United States by act of Con- 
gress to guarantee complete freedom to every citizen, and 
immunity from all oppression, and absolute equality before 
the law." No government that does not guarantee these 
things, he added, can be recognized as republican in form 
according to the theory of the Federal Constitution, if the 
United States are called upon to enforce the constitutional 
guaranty. 

Senator Henderson, interpreting this answer in the affirma- 



352 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

live, observed that if under the guaranty clause the national 
Legislature could regulate the suffrage in the States, there 
was no limitation except the mere discretion of Congress. In 
support of this position he cited Madison in No. 43 of The 
Federalist, and of course had this part of the argument his 
own way, for the test of a republican form satisfactory to 
the Massachusetts Senator would leave few representatives 
in Congress. 

Mr. Henderson denied that the admission of Senators and 
Representatives from these commonwealths would be a prece- 
dent for other States to demand recognition, even with the 
institution of slavery, thus bringing back the germs of a new 
rebellion against the Government; because in the constitutions 
presented involuntary servitude was abolished. With slavery 
remaining any restoration would be utterly useless. It was 
against union with the free States that the Southern people 
had taken up arms, and against restoration that they continued 
to use them. In that struggle they would employ every moral 
and material force, including the slave himself, stimulated by 
the boon of freedom, to resist the return of their States. 
Whatever the future might bring, it would fail to bring to the 
doors of Congress seeking admission a State constitution 
without a positive interdict of slavery. 

To the objection that a majority of the people of these States 
were in rebellion and that to recognize the loyal minority 
would be to subvert the whole republican system Senator Hen- 
derson replied that if it were strictly true that a majority in 
a particular community " not only shall but must govern," 
then a majority of legal voters in a State desiring to secede 
would have the undoubted right to do so. As no principle of 
the General Government authorized such action, it was not 
true, he said, that a majority of citizens in a State can govern 
themselves except in strict obedience to the Constitution of 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 353 

the United States. If a majority proved derelict and under- 
took to destroy the very Government of which the State is 
a part, it is right that the minority, who sustain the Govern- 
ment in its entirety. State and national, should institute gov- 
ernment for their protection. He admitted that General 
Banks did a great many things for which there was no legal 
authority; but the question was whether this constitution was 
the will of the loyal men of Louisiana. If it was, their repre- 
sentatives had a right to seats on the floor of Congress. 

In reply to Sumner, Senator Henderson said he favored 
the idea that the loyal men should govern a State, and he 
added, if that be the government of the few it results from 
the voluntary disloyalty of the many. They, of their own 
will, had relinquished the right to govern themselves under 
the Constitution, and as they had no right to govern them- 
selves otherwise they could not govern at all. As to the 
oligarchy of skin, to which Sumner had referred, Henderson 
believed that the regulation of the suffrage was a question for 
the consideration of the States; if they conferred the franchise 
on the negro, he did not object. 

As to the Louisiana constitution the question was whether 
it embodied the will of those legally entitled to exercise the 
functions of the State government. If the casting of illegal 
votes vitiated elections, but few elections, he asserted, would 
be valid. 

If those States were admitted, they could immediately 
settle all questions of suffrage, and Congress would be re- 
lieved of the difficulty in future. He put clearly the differ- 
ence of opinion prevailing among Senators on this subject 
when he stated that Mr. Powell objected to the new constitu- 
tion of Louisiana because negro soldiers were permitted to 
vote, while Mr. Sumner opposed it because negroes at home 
did not vote. Concluding this part of his speech, he declared 



354 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

that the Federal Government by recognizing the old organiza- 
tion in Rhode Island against Dorr expressed its preference 
for a constitution of restricted suffrage. 

Without naming his authority Henderson then read from 
a private letter the opinion of a gentleman whom he regarded 
as one of the ablest jurists in the United States.^ The cor- 
respondent said in part : 

It must be observed that the civil society, and the political society so 
to speak, of a State need not necessarily do [be] the same. In other 
words the basis of representation may be the whole population, but the 
basis of suffrage be property, adult years, &c. The power to choose 
rulers is lodged in the voters, and they may not exceed one tenth of 
the population. . . . That portion of the population in which political 
power is lodged, determines who shall fill the respective offices, make 
laws, etc Although the members of that society may have possessed 
every requisite therefor, yet the moment they ceased to be citizens of the 
United States they ceased to belong thereto. 

That rule holds good with respect to every member, and the political 
society may, by death, disqualification of members, &c., be reduced to a 
very few persons. To state an extreme case, for illustration of the prin- 
ciple, Massachusetts formerly had a property qualification, and although 
her population entitled her to, say, thirteen Representatives in the 
United States House, her voters may not have exceeded fifty thousand. 
Suppose while that qualification remained, by some financial or other 
disaster, only one thousand or one hundred citizens retained the neces- 
sary income or property, would not the persons chosen to Congress by 
the few and only remaining voters be duly elected? So with regard to 
any other element of suffrage, as United States citizenship, if by its 
loss the voters are reduced to very few in number, do not those few 
constitute the political or voting power? As to the policy or impolicy 
of restricted suffrage, we are not now concerned, but are endeavoring to 
reach a constitutional and legal analysis of our governmental system. 

But here is encountered the startling and practical difficulty, " Shall a 
few persons be permitted to govern a State, despite the wishes of its 
inhabitants, and without giving them all a voice? Is that republican?" 

But it must be remembered that the few voters, say one seventh, or 
one tenth of the whole population, have always been intrusted with that 

* While this chapter was in press an interesting letter from Senator 
Henderson informed the author that the Hon. Samuel Treat, of St. 
Louis, formerly Judge of the United States Court for the Eastern Dis- 
trict of Missouri, is the distinguished jurist referred to in the text. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 355 

power. Wisdom has fixed the basis of suffrage, without regard to rela- 
tive numbers; that is, it has endeavored, under our popular system, to 
' give the right or privilege to as many citizens as were supposed competent 
to exercise it intelligently. The rules prescribed as to age, sex, citizen- 
ship, &c., were deemed essential, right, and proper. Whether many or 
few come within the rules does not affect their validity. ... If 
persons heretofore entitled to a vote chose to commit a felony, and incur 
thereby, as a penalty, the deprivation of their former right of suffrage, 
it is not supposed that the loss of such votes is anti-republican. If, then, 
a majority choose to perpetrate treason, or to expatriate themselves, or 
in any other way become disqualified, how does that action vitiate the 
rule? If they, after becoming disqualified, remain in the State, are they 
not bound to submit to its rulers and laws? If their rulers are chosen 
without their voice, is it not in consequence of their own voluntary action? 
Indeed, it often happens that the persons elected to office receive only a 
meager minority of the votes which could have been lawfully polled, yet 
that fact has no influence upon the legal result. So a person is often 
chosen by a minority of the votes actually cast, and is not the majority 
bound to submit? 

The author of this letter appears to have been more famil- 
iar with the Constitution, as it was understood by its framers, 
than almost any member of either House, notwithstanding the 
presence in Congress of many distinguished statesmen. In 
the following eight propositions Mr. Henderson then gave a 
masterly summary of the Presidential plan of reconstruction : 

1. I hold that the seceded States are still in the Union and cannot get 
out of it except through amendment of the Constitution permitting it. 

2. The seceded States being still in the Union are entitled to claim all 
the rights accorded to other States. 

3. That each State now in the Union has the right to stand upon the 
form of its constitution as it existed at the time of its admission. The 
people of such State may change its constitution, provided they retain a 
republican form of government ; but neither the President nor Con- 
gress can reform, alter, or amend such constitution, nor prescribe any 
alteration or amendment as a condition of association with the other 
States of the Union. The General Government may properly lend its 
aid to enable the people to express their will ; but any attempt to exer- 
cise power constitutionally reserved to the State, beyond what may be 
demanded by the immediate exigencies of war, will not tend to restore 
the Union, but rather to destroy our whole system of government. 

4. When citizens of a State rebel and take up arms against the General 



356 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Government they lose their rights as citizens o£ the United States, and 
they necessarily forfeit those rights and franchises in their respective 
States which depend on United States citizenship. 

5. If a seceded State be still in the Union, entitled to recognition as a 
State, and a majority of the people have voluntarily withdrawn their 
allegiance, the loyal minority constitute the State and should govern it. 

6. Congress should not reject the governments presented because of 
mere irregularity in the proceedings leading to their reorganization. 

7. If Congress has no right to make and impose a constitution upon 
the people of any State ; if its power extends no further than to guar- 
anty preexisting republican forms of government; if the State still 
exists, and the loyal men are entitled to exercise the functions of its 
government, it follows that the only questions to be examined here are, 
first, is the constitution the will of the loyal men qualified to act? and, 
second, is it republican in form? 

8. The constitutions of Louisiana and Arkansas are thought to be 
republican in form, and it is admitted that the loyal men of those 
States respectively acquiesce in them. Hence the duty of Congress to 
recognize them, and the duty of each House to admit their repre- 
sentatives.' 

On February 25 debate on Trumbull's resolution was re- 
sumed. At this point Mr. Sumner offered an amendment in 
substance as follows: 

That it is the duty of the United States at the earliest practicable 
moment, consistent wrth the common defence and general welfare, to 
reestablish by act of Congress republican governments in those States 
where loyal governments have been vacated by the existing rebellion, 
and thus, to the full extent of their power, fulfil the requirement of the 
Constitution, that " the United States shall guaranty to every State in 
this Union a republican form of government." 

Sec. 2. And be it further resolved, That this important duty is imposed 
by the Constitution in express terms on " the United States," and not 
on individuals or classes of individuals, or on any military commander 
or executive officer, and cannot be intrusted to any such persons, acting, 
it may be, for an oligarchical class, and in disregard of large numbers of 
loyal people : but it must be performed by the United States, represented 
by the President and both Houses of Congress, acting for the whole 
people thereof. 

Sec. 3. And be it further resolved, That, in determining the extent of 
this duty, and in the absence of any precise definition of the term 

* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1065-1070. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 357 

" republican form of government," we cannot err, if, when called to 
perform this guaranty under the Constitution, we adopt the self-evident 
truths of the Declaration of Independence as an authoritative rule, 
and insist that in every reestablished State the consent of the governed 
shall be the only just foundation of government, and all men shall be 
equal before the law. 

Not less important is the declaration in the fourth section 
that " in the performance of this guaranty, there can be 
no power under the Constitution to disfranchise loyal peo- 
ple, or to recognize any such disfranchisement, especially 
when it may hand over the loyal majority to the government 
of the disloyal minority; nor can there be any power under 
the Constitution to discriminate in favor of the rebellion 
by admitting to the electoral franchise rebels who have for- 
feited all rights and by excluding loyal persons who have 
never forfeited any right." To allow the reestablishment of 
any State without proper safeguards for the rights of all the 
citizens, and especially without making it impossible for reb- 
els to trample upon the rights of those who are now fighting 
the battles of the Union, would be, said the succeeding sec- 
tion, for the United States to fail in duty under the Consti- 
tution. 

More directly in opposition to the resolution reported by 
the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, however, was the 
seventh section, which declared " That a government founded 
on military power, or having its origin in military orders, 
cannot be a ' republican form of government ' according to 
the requirement of the Constitution; and that its recognition 
will be contrary not only to the Constitution, but also to 
that essential principle of our Government which, in the 
language of Jefferson, establishes ' the supremacy of the civil 
over the military authority.' " 

The resolutions further asserted that a government 
founded on an oligarchical class, even if erroneously recog- 
nized as a " republican form of government," could not sus- 



358 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

tain itself without national support; that such an organization 
was not at that moment competent to discharge the duties and 
execute the powers of a State, and that its recognition would 
tend to enfeeble the Union, to postpone the day of reconcilia- 
tion and to endanger the national tranquillity. The ninth 
section renders clear one ground of Sumner's hostility to the 
recognition of Louisiana. It asserts that 

Considerations of expediency are in harmony with the requirements 
of the Constitution, and the dictates of justice and reason, especially 
now, when colored soldiers have shown their military value ; that as their 
muskets are needed for the national defence against rebels in the field, 
so are their ballots yet more needed against the subtle enemies of the 
Union at home ; and that without their support at the ballot-box the 
cause of human rights and of the Union itself will be in constant 
peril.* 

It was agreed on motion of Mr. Sumner to have his amend- 
ment printed. 

Senator Howard, of Michigan, entered at this point into 
the debate. Much of what he said has already been related 
in the preceding narration of events leading up to the rein- 
auguration of a loyal government in Louisiana. While ad- 
mitting that the President's plan had been undertaken for 
patriotic ends, he could not, he said, recognize in the Execu- 
tive, without the subsidiary aid of an act of Congress, any 
right to assure a community, composed of voters numbering 
one tenth of the electors who participated in the Presidential 
contest of i860, that it would be recognized as a legitimate 
government and entitled to the constitutional guaranty. This, 
he said, was a stretch of authority beyond any previous at- 
tempt, and he thought it time that Congress, in whom, 
he believed, rested solely the authority of readmitting 
and reconstructing the rebellious States, " should lay hold 

* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1091. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 359 

of this subject, assert their power, and provide by some statute 
of uniform appHcation for the reconstruction, as it is called, 
and readmission of the insurrectionary States. That is their 
right and their duty ; that is not the right, it is not the duty of 
the President." 

A State he defined negatively as not " the geographical 
superficies," the land, on which population resides, and posi- 
tively as " a moral person, a political community, possessing 
the faculty of political government." The land, he said, is 
the theatre on which the political community moves and acts, 
but is endowed with no thought, no right, no duty.. The 
thinking beings residing upon it constitute the State.^ 

" A State of the Union or a State in the Union is, there- 
fore, a people yielding obedience to the laws of the Union, 
that is, the acts of Congress and the national treaties. 
. . . A people who have a State government which is 
republican in form; a people who were one of the original 
thirteen States which formed the United States, or a people 
who have, since the adoption of the Constitution, been, in 
the language of that Constitution, * admitted by the Congress 
into this Union ' as States upon an equal footing with the 
original States; for this equality of rights and powers as 
States is plainly implied by the language and the manifest 
intention of the instrument; and no other people except such 
original State or admitted State; none but a State which per- 
mits the laws of the Union to have full scope and force within 
its limits; none but a State which sends Senators and Repre- 
sentatives to Congress friendly to the Government itself, will- 
ing to vote men and money to support and uphold it, who be- 
lieve that a person forcibly resisting its authority is a traitor 
and deserving of death; none but a State which is willing to 

* In support of this view the Senator cited Penhallow's Case, 3 Dallas, 
p. 94. 



360 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

bring to trial, to convict such a traitor, and to punish him for 
his treason; none but a State whose population is capable of 
furnishing both the grand jury to indict and the traverse jury 
to convict such a traitor; none but a State whose population 
and whose authorities are in favor not only of permitting the 
laws of the United States relating to civil rights to be ex- 
ecuted, but who are willing that the punitive code of the 
nation, the code of vengeance against its enemies, shall be 
carried out ; none but such are States of the Union. . . . 

" To be in fact a State of the Union and in the Union, this 
will or consent of the people must be in harmony with the 
Constitution, and its movements subsidiary to it. It must 
regard the Constitution as its highest political good; its in- 
junctions as the highest human law, its commands as the 
infallible and final measure of civil duty. In short, to be in 
the Union is to be actively and willingly cooperating with 
other States in the performance of all those acts and things 
without which the Federal Government cannot act or move, 
cannot perform the functions required of it by the Constitu- 
tion; it is to elect Senators and Representatives to the Con- 
gress of the United States; to permit the courts of the United 
States to be held within their limits, and its citizens to act as 
jurors and officers of the court; to permit the judgments and 
sentences of the court to be executed against its citizens; to 
permit the United States mail to be carried through the State 
and its contents distributed according to law; to permit the 
officers of the United States to collect the Federal revenue 
whether derived from foreign or domestic products; to per- 
mit the United States to manage and control their own prop- 
erty, whether consisting of forts, dockyards, arsenals, mints, 
or public lands; to make such elections of Senators and Rep- 
resentatives freely and as the means of maintaining itself as 
a State in the Union; and to permit all these things willingly 
and freely as rights belonging to the Federal Government 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 361 

with which neither the State government nor the people of 
the State have any right whatever to interfere. In short, to 
be a State in the Union is to use all those powers of the 
State which have a relation to the Federal Government in a 
manner friendly to that Government, friendly to its existence 
and continuance, in a manner promotive of the objects of that 
Government; and to permit without hindrance the exercise 
within the State of all the powers of the Federal Govern- 
ment." 

Though he declined to discuss the question whether a State 
by omitting to send Representatives and Senators to Congress 
would on that account cease to be a member of the Union, he 
gave it as his opinion that mere failure to be represented in 
Congress would not be followed by such consequences ; but if 
a State not only refused to participate in Federal legislation 
but went farther, and as a political community made war 
upon the General Government, he declared that " it would be 
folly, madness, to say that the State was not our enemy in 
every sense in which that term can be employed to describe 
hostile relations between independent communities. . . . 
No one will pretend that such a community is in the Union 
in fact, for that would be to make an admission and in the 
same breath to contradict it. De facto, such a community, 
and, if it be bounded by State lines, such a State, is as com- 
pletely out of the Union as is Canada or Mexico, from the 
moment it assumes the attitude of hostility until it is subdued 
and conquered by our arms, or until it voluntarily lays down 
its arms, ejects its hostile government and returns in fact to 
its once friendly sentiments and friendly relations to the 
Federal Government." 

" Loyalty," continued Senator Howard, " thus becomes the 
final test in solving the question, what is a State in the Union ? 
If a State by its overt acts has shown a want of this friendship, 
it is no longer in the Union de facto, and cannot be treated 



362 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

as if it were. The Supreme Court, acting upon the soundest 
principles of public law, have decided the waging of war by 
a State, although acting under an illegitimate and revolution- 
ary government, renders her territory enemy's territory, and 
the people there resident enemies of the United States, in the 
sense of the laws of war. And their decision could not have 
been different." 

The State, he argued further, was in fact, though wrong- 
fully, out of the Union because its actual government was 
disloyal and treasonable. Out of it because unsubdued re- 
bellion made it for the time being an independent though 
unrecognized nation on the earth's surface, throwing off its 
allegiance to its paramount Government, and assuming by 
the sword to assert its separate nationality. 

" But we are at war with the rebel States, and are told 
. . , that the Government, so far at least as the rebel 
States are concerned, is under some peculiar constitutional 
restraint by which its hands are tied ; that we are prohibited 
from 'subjugating' those States; that all we can do, under 
the Constitution, is to break up the military array of the 
rebels, disperse their armed bands, take away their arms, and 
do that very indefinite duty, restore order; that thereupon 
our task is ended and the rebel States have a constitutional 
right to come back into the Union and participate in the 
enactment of Federal laws and the conduct of the Federal 
Government. And we are menaced both in Congress and out 
with terrible retributions if we conquer or attempt to conquer, 
if we subjugate or attempt to subjugate, the rebel States. It 
is admitted by these our critics that in an international war 
. . . we should have all the rights and powers of other 
independent nations, and might rightfully conquer our adver- 
sary, . . . that we might make a complete conquest 
of his people and his territory. 

** Now, it is lawful to wage such a foreign war, for 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 363 

the purpose of effectuating such a complete conquest, and 
of course lawful to attain it; . . . lawful to substitute 
the political authority of the United States for that of a 
hostile foreign nation;" otherwise, he argued, the war could 
not be a successful one; hence in a war with a member of the 
Union the United States could substitute for the authority of 
such hostile commonwealth its own authority. There was no 
difference between the two cases. The former actual hostile 
government should be supplanted by the Federal Govern- 
ment. No other government had a right to give the law. 
Had the conquered rebel people that right? No; for that 
would be to allow them at once to expel their conquerors by 
a popular decree, and to deny the supremacy of the Federal 
Government which had subdued them. Had the old State 
government, he asked, the once loyal government, the right 
to govern the conquered people? No; there was no such 
government. It had long since ceased to exist. " In fact, 
there is no government there, none at all, which can for a 
moment be recognized or permitted by the United States, as 
the party now holding the actual mastery of the country; 
and like every other case where the possession of a country 
has arisen from the use of superior force, the will of the 
conqueror is the law — that is, the will of the United States 
expressed, in the absence of acts of Congress, by the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army, but by the acts of Congress 
after Congress has spoken. 

"... No one will deny that we have a right to sub- 
due by arms and to reduce to quietude and submission a rebel 
State, that is, the people of a State in insurrection. But how 
absurd to make this concession, and at the same time to 
deny to us the constitutional power to occupy and hold the 
territory and its people in our military grasp — an occupation 
just as necessary to the end in view as the firing of cannon, 
the charging of cavalry, or any other operation in the field. 



364 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

"... The true objects of the war . . . are 
the suppression of the rebelHon, the reestabhshment of the 
original Federal authority within the State, and the revival 
of the loyalty of the people of the State as the sole founda- 
tion and condition of all its civil rights as a State of the 
Union and of the right of its people to be treated as friends 
and not as enemies. Although the United States have the 
full and complete right which conquest gives, for the purpose 
of subjecting these domestic enemies to the exercise of the 
powers granted by the Constitution to Congress, and for the 
purpose of restoring to the body-politic its vital blood, 
loyalty to the Government, yet those purposes, those distinct 
ends, are without doubt limits beyond which we cannot go. 
We are restrained by the manifest objects for which the 
national Government was formed; but restrained by no par- 
ticular clause of the Constitution. The instrument contains 
no such clause, and the limitation and restraint are of pre- 
cisely the same nature as those which any other government 
is under in subduing an insurrection of its own subjects or 
citizens; the plain object of the war in both cases being the 
restoration of legitimate authority and the revival of alle- 
giance. And until this revival of allegiance there must be 
the same need of military occupation and repression in both 
cases." 

After showing that the existence of the States is indispen- 
sable to that of the Federal Government, he proceeded, " it 
is not permissible by mere interpretation to clothe that Gov- 
ernment with a power permanently to abolish the State gov- 
ernment by way of punishing or suppressing the rebellion; 
or to convert the States into mere Territories of the United 
States, that is, public domain, to be divided up afterward by 
lines different from those of the States, and again admitted 
into the Union like matured Territories, with such new 
geographical limits as Congress may see fit to establish." 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 365 

Article IV., Section 3, Clause i of the Constitution the Sen- 
ator regarded as an express prohibition to change the boun- 
daries of any State once in the Union without its consent; 
" its consent in its capacity as a State, freely given by its own 
Legislature." He believed that the Amnesty Proclamation of 
President Lincoln indicated that its author held a different 
opinion. 

He rejected the idea that the rebellious States could be con- 
verted into Territories. This term, under our system, he 
added, " implies land never lying in any State, land ceded to 
the United States either by the old States, or purchased or 
conquered from foreign nations. The term never has been 
used to describe a State or any part of a State; and it implies 
not only the ownership of the soil and right of disposition, 
but full and complete political jurisdiction in the Federal Gov- 
ernment over the people resident there. . . . " 

The objects of the conquest being as stated above, such 
forcible occupation was, he continued, in its very nature tem- 
porary and ought to cease the moment those objects were at- 
tained. This could not be done without establishing a gov- 
ernment to preserve order, life and property — a provisional 
government, for that is the true historic name to be applied 
in all cases where an old government has been overthrown; 
a provisional government instituted by the conqueror, and to 
be continued just so long as Congress deemed it necessary to 
continue it for the attainment, and while attaining, those 
high objects. The occupancy, that is, the possession of all 
the reins of local government by the Federal authorities 
would be but temporary, provisional, fiduciary. It should nec- 
essarily last until the Federal Government had done its duty in 
the reestablishment of order and the revival of loyalty. Until 
then it was, and should continue, the omnipotent sovereign of 
the State, holding actually by right of conquest, though for a 
particular purpose, and being itself necessarily the final judge 



366 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

to determine when its tutelary mission had been accom- 
plished. 

He avoided, he said, a discussion of the question whether a 
State can commit suicide, that is, extinguish its own being by 
waging a rebellious war against the Federal Government; 
instead of presenting any such abstract question of political 
dialectics, the case, he declared, merely presented the usual 
question which arose whenever and wherever there had been 
a forcible revolution. What, he inquired, was the duty of the 
paramount and lawful government in its treatment of insur- 
gent communities ? And was not the Government doing its 
whole duty in punishing the ringleaders in the revolt and 
restoring the old and constitutional Government over those 
districts? 

The Government, Mr. Howard proceeded, must be the final 
judge of the duration of this military occupation. It was 
bound by the plain terms of the Constitution not only to sup- 
press the insurrection, which was done the moment it had ob- 
tained firm possession of the whole of the hostile territory, but 
to guarantee to the conquered State a republican form of gov- 
ernment. To perform this high and sacred trust, time of 
course was necessary; likewise a great variety of means and 
instrumentalities, " of all which the Government of the United 
States must, because it has no superior, no equal in the 
matter, be the sole and final judge. These means may em- 
brace acts of provisional legislation, creating private rights 
and duties not previously in existence, but existing by law 
and of a permanent nature, paramount to all subsequent State 
legislation because arising under the supreme authority of the 
nation, as, for instance, the giving freedom to slaves ; or they 
may undoubtedly embrace conditions to be performed by the 
subdued States on taking their places again in the Union, 
such as would be an ordinance forever abolishing slavery 
in the State. . . . 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 367 

" Yet while thus in our military power, awaiting our action, 
looking to their restoration, nothing is clearer than that the 
citizens of the rebel States, though owing obedience to all 
the laws of the United States, possess no political rights under 
the Constitution except protection. They are not free to act, 
because their freedom to act would, if indulged, lead them 
again to draw the sword against the United States. . . . 
They have no right to send members to this body or to the 
House of Representatives, much less to participate in the 
election of President and Vice-President. They are the ward- 
provinces of the United States, progressing toward the 
maturity of revived loyalty, but not yet entitled to exercise the 
elective franchise or to participate in the enactment of laws. 

" If I am asked what I mean by the Government of the 
United States, and whether I mean that the President as 
Commander-in-Chief has the exclusive power to establish 
these provisional governments, I answer, I do not. He has 
the right to regulate military occupation until Congress has 
acted upon the subject; . . . but the establishment of 
provisional governments, the quieting of the rebellious prov- 
ince and the reestablishment of legitimate authority over it, 
pertains to the sovereign power, that is, the law-giving power 
of the nation. With us that power is lodged in Congress and 
not in the President ; and in my opinion it is the business of 
Congress, and Congress alone, to establish and uphold these 
provisional governments. . . . We need not doubt that 
whatever we see fit to enact will be approved and carried out 
by the President. We cannot be more truly anxious than he 
to fix upon a stable, firm policy for restoring peace and union; 
but we ought not to shut our eyes to the necessities he will con- 
tinually be under, to the almost irresistable importunities he 
will encounter, to provide some sort of civil government for 
the subdued States or districts; or to the consequences of leav- 
ing such mighty questions for him to decide. It is our plain 



368 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

duty to establish a uniform rule on the subject, so that all 
may be treated alike and the same remedy be applied with a 
paternal but firm and resolute hand to each delinquent State." 

He opposed for two reasons the " scheme " of allowing 
one tenth or any other minor part of the male citizens of 
a commonwealth to organize a government and assume to 
act as a State : first, " because as against the will of an 
actual majority the government of such a minority must neces- 
sarily come to a speedy end and thus invite a renewal of the 
civil war, in that locality at least; and second, because gov- 
ernment by a minority is of evil example and inconsistent 
with the genius of American liberty. . . , As a Repub- 
lican I would sooner hazard ten slaveholders' rebellions than 
risk liberty in a government by a minority." In this connec- 
tion he assigned an additional motive for his attitude toward 
the resolution. The will of the friendly element, he said, could 
prevail only by military support, and such an organization, 
if intended as a civil government, was not republican in the 
sense of the Constitution. When such aid was withdrawn the 
majority, he asserted, would wreak vengeance on the 
weakened minority. 

Concluding this part of his argument, he added : " The 
measure now before you proposes to acknowledge eight thou- 
sand citizens of Louisiana as a State, and to give them the 
rights and privileges exercised by a voting population of more 
than fifty thousand in i860. Eight thousand are thus to 
give the law or assume to give it to forty-two thousand — to 
more than five times their number. This they may do so 
long as their decrees are sustained by the presence and con- 
sent of a competent military force; but we all know, both 
parties there know, the world knows, and, sir, posterity will 
know, that it is not the eight thousand who govern the State, 
but the fear of the bayonet, and the fear is inspired solely by 
the President of the United States, as Commander-in-Chief 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 369 

of the Army and Navy ! Disguise it, or attempt to disguise 
it, as we may, to this complexion doth it come at last. Yes, 
sir, both the eight thousand and the forty-two thousand voters 
are governed not by themselves, but by the bayonet ! And this 
is at present the only government in Louisiana. The object 
of the present measure is to continue this hybrid, unnatural 
government there. It allows the meager and almost con- 
temptible proportion of less than one sixth of the voting 
population to govern the whole State, and to have the in- 
fluence of the whole State in our legislation here, while we 
know that if the military forces were withdrawn that privi- 
leged one sixth part would be swept away like chaff before 
the hurricane breath of the enraged majority. Sir, such a 
government is the merest bubble, especially if unsustained by 
military power. This is too obvious to need further com- 
ment." 

" All this we might possibly endure," continued Senator 
Howard, " were it not that the measure before us clothes 
this mockery of a government, this king of shreds and patches, 
this mistletoe State regime that falls to the earth the moment 
it ceases to cling around the flag-staff of the national forces, 
with the high attribute of voting upon and determining ques- 
tions of legislation, questions of war or peace, questions of 
prosecuting or ceasing to prosecute the present war, in this 
Hall and in the Hall of the House of Representatives. This 
measure introduces here Senators and Representatives whose 
immediate friends and relatives at home have deliberately 
aided and assisted to put to death myriads of Union soldiers 
from the North, and in swelling up that vast debt of more 
than two thousand million dollars which now rests upon the 
country. Think you that such Senators and Representatives, 
whose constituents have already been stripped of their prop- 
erty by the rebel government, and brought down to the depths 
of poverty; a community without the habits of labor among 



370 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the intelligent classes; naked, hungry, despondent and sullen; 
think you that their Representatives would at the present time 
be safe depositories of the power to tax their constituents to 
pay this debt ? Is it not, on the other hand, the part of pru- 
dence to guard against the contingency of having that debt re- 
pudiated by such legislators and the still more disgraceful 
contingency of being, by their votes, aided by a Northern 
party, finally compelled to pay the rebel debt of $4,000,000,- 
000? And tell me, what right has Louisiana, the majority 
of whose population is to-day, wherever they are, hostile to 
this Government and anxious for its overthrow; what right 
has she, upon any recognized principle of public law or jus- 
tice, to be represented in Congress ? " 

The treatment accorded Louisiana would, he feared, be a 
precedent for the ten remaining States. There would be the 
expense of holding each for a time in military occupation to 
bolster up their State governments. He preferred for Louisi- 
ana and the other insurgent States a provisional establishment 
for regulating domestic affairs, but without representation in 
Congress until the mass of their people plainly perceived their 
error in attempting to overthrow the General Government. 

Congress should, he thought, take the subject of readmis- 
sion into their own hands. It was for them and not for the 
President to execute the important guaranty to each State 
of a republican form of government, and that duty became 
more and more urgent as the Federal armies swept on from 
victory to victory. In making good that guaranty the great 
indispensable necessity, he declared, was loyalty.^ 

Mr. Howard was followed immediately by Reverdy John- 
son, of Maryland, who to the great surprise of his fellow- 
Democrats argued in favor of the resolution. His remarks 
were introduced by a concise statement of the chief political 
events occurring in Louisiana between the capture of New 
* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1091-1095. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 371 

Orleans and the ratification, in September, 1864, of the new 
constitution. Concluding this part of his speech he said : 

" These, sir, are the facts. The Committee on the Judiciary 
— and in the conclusion to which they came I concurred — 
were of opinion that under the circumstances in which the 
State was at the period when these proceedings were had, she 
could not be recognized as a State of the United States under 
that constitution adopted in 1864, except by an act of Con- 
gress. The committee were of opinion that it was not in the 
power of the Executive under the circumstances to bring the 
State back under that constitution. They were of opinion, 
however, that it was competent for Congress to do so, and 
the only question before the Committee was, whether, under 
the circumstances under which the State was at the time, it 
was not the duty of Congress to bring the State back so as 
to have her represented in the Union." 

His objection to the conclusion of the committee was that 
the proceedings which led to the adoption of the constitution 
were instituted at the instance and under the power of the 
Federal military authorities. The precedent, he admitted, 
was really a bad one, and the proposition upon which the 
committee were called to decide was whether, if they were 
satisfied that the number of votes said to have been cast were 
in fact cast, and the persons voting were loyal citizens, they 
should be denied the privilege of being represented in the 
councils of the nation and subjected to a continuance of mili- 
tary power. Mr. Johnson added : " My impression is that, 
no matter how the proceedings were instituted, whether it was 
by the military authority, or by the coming together of the 
people of the State, if in point of fact the people of the State 
did act voluntarily and were competent to act under the orig- 
inal constitution, and were authorized to act by being loyal at 
the time they did act, it is the duty of the government of the 
United States to receive them back. 



372 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

" Another objection was that, however true it might be that 
it would be in the power of all the voters of the State to adopt 
a constitution for themselves, or to claim the right of coming 
back to the Union under the constitution existing at the time 
of the rebellion, it was not true that it was in the power of 
fourteen [eleven] thousand, four hundred and fourteen 
voters, when the entire voting population of the State was 
fifty-one thousand, to take that course. As it seemed to me 
then, and seems now, there is no evidence to show that a 
single citizen of Louisiana was excluded from the right of 
voting." 

It was not so certain, he argued further, that the eleven 
thousand voters who participated were not a large majority 
of the actual electors in Louisiana, for the war engaged the 
greater part of the voting population, and nine tenths of those 
who entered the Confederate service had forfeited their lives 
upon the battlefield; of those above or below the military 
age many had gone elsewhere, or if they remained in the 
State it was as disloyal citizens. 

It was not pretended, he said, in discussing the relation of 
the loyal minority to the General Government, that by the act 
of secession they ceased to be citizens of the United States. 
Their fidelity to the Union entitled them to Federal protec- 
tion. If loyal, they had forfeited no rights belonging to them 
before the commencement of the rebellion. No Federal law 
had been violated, no constitutional obligation evaded by 
them. They could not ask admission into the Union, be- 
cause to speak such a desire was to subject themselves to 
punishment; when the protection of the United States was 
afforded them and they could once more declare their senti- 
ments without hazard they met at their several election polls, 
organized their government under existing law, and then, 
wishing to change it, met in convention and adopted the 
constitution which had been submitted to the Senate. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 373 

" Why," inquired Mr. Johnson, " should we not receive it? " 
The right of eleven thousand citizens to change their con- 
stitution was not denied, but their action was questioned be- 
cause there were others, then in arms against the Government 
of the United States, who did not join them in asserting it. 
In examining the question who were to exercise the authority 
of the State, he argued : " Now, if it be true that the secession 
ordinance had no operation to carry the State out, and that I 
understand even the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Sum- 
ner] admitted last night; if it be true that the State is in the 
Union notwithstanding the ordinance, then the only question 
to be considered is, who are the people of Louisiana that are 
to exercise the sovereign authority belonging to the State of 
Louisiana? Are they the loyal or the disloyal? There can 
be but one answer to that inquiry. It must only be the loyal." 

Senator Howard admitted, continued Mr. Johnson, that it 
is not in the power of the United States to change the terri- 
torial limits of the States that had gone out, because the 
Constitution prohibits it. If he had thought for a moment he 
would have seen that the Constitution equally prohibits any 
interference on the part of the General Government with the 
exercise of the right of suffrage in a State. He then combated 
at some length the intimation of Senators Howard and Sum- 
ner that any power without a State had a right to prescribe 
qualifications for the exercise of the suffrage. 

Mr. Powell, too, concurred in this view and asked by what 
authority General Banks and the President undertook to pre- 
scribe the qualifications of voters in Louisiana. The Mary- 
land Senator replied that this question had been antici- 
pated. The eleven thousand four hundred and fourteen 
voters, according to the proof before the Senate, were all loyal 
men and entitled to vote by the original constitution of 
Louisiana, no matter how they were brought together. If, 
coming together, they did an act which they would have been 



374 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

authorized to do if they had come together voluntarily they 
ought to be received. 

Powell then inquired, what right had the Senate to presume 
that there may not have been twelve thousand loyal voters 
in Louisiana who were deprived of the right of suffrage be- 
cause of this order of General Banks ? As the Kentucky Sena- 
tor understood it, no man could vote " unless he would go 
forward and take the oath prescribed by the President and 
swear to support and sustain all proclamations in regard to 
African slavery already issued and all that might afterward 
be issued." Mr. Johnson acknowledged this difficulty and 
admitted that he had always felt it; but they had the same 
difficulty, he asserted, in his own State, and a much greater 
one; he would be sorry to think Maryland was not in the 
Union. " Maryland is in the Union," said Senator Powell. 
" The constitution," observed Johnson in reply, " which now 
makes her a State in the Union was adopted the other day. 
I mean the one which governs her. She has manumitted her 
slaves by force of that constitution. No man in Maryland 
seriously contests the obligation of that constitution in that 
particular or in any other. But it was adopted, in fact, by 
the exclusion of a good many men who were entitled to 
vote." 

Mr. Johnson at this point became engaged in an argument, 
not wholly relevant, with Sumner in which he gained some 
advantage over the Massachusetts Senator. As a specimen of 
the latter's parliamentary tactics at this time it may not be 
irrelevant to reproduce a passage from the Congressional 
Globe. 

Mr. Sumner. Allow me to ask the Senator [Johnson] whether, in his 
opinion, the Ordinance governing the Northwest Territory, prohibiting 
slavery everywhere throughout that Territory, and which was declared 
to be a perpetual compact, could be set aside by any one of the States in 
the Territory now. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 375 

Mr. Johnson. I certainly think they can, except so far as rights are 
vested. 

Mr. Sumner. The Senator, then, thinks Ohio can enslave a fellow- 
man? 

Mr. Johnson. Just as much as Massachusetts can. 

Mr. Sumner. Massachusetts cannot. 

Mr. Johnson. Why not? 

Mr. Sumner. Massachusetts cannot do an act of injustice. 

Mr. Johnson. Oh, indeed! I did not know that. [Laughter.]* 

Notwithstanding this claim for his native State Sumner 
admitted a moment later that Massachusetts had united in the 
Convention of 1787 with South Carolina to deny to Congress 
authority to prohibit the slave trade for twenty years, and 
he confessed that such action was unjust. His inconsistency 
was still further exposed by Senator Henderson, who called 
attention to the fact that the educational qualification imposed 
by the Massachusetts constitution would exclude from the 
franchise almost every negro in Louisiana if the provisions 
were applicable in the latter State.^ 

After this colloquy, not uninteresting to the student of 
constitutional history, the Maryland Senator resumed his 
remarks : 

" One word more, sir, and I have done. If Congress passes 
this resolution, and the State is admitted, no court will here- 
after be able to decide that she is not a State in the Union, 
and no court therefore can call in question the validity or 
effect of any provision to be found in her constitution. One 
of the provisions of this constitution is that all the slaves of 
Louisiana are emancipated. Pass this resolution, admit the 
State, and that provision is effectual at once." ^ 

Mr. Sumner, having in mind the fundamental condition 
imposed by Congress upon the admission of Missouri, offered 

' Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1097. 

* Ibid. 

' Ibid., pp. 1095-1098. 



376 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the following amendment of the resolution from the Com- 
mittee on the Judiciary : 

Provided, That this shall not take effect except upon the fundamental 
condition that within the State there shall be no denial of the electoral 
franchise, or of any other rights on account of color or race, but all per- 
sons shall be equal before the law. And the Legislature of the State, 
by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the State to this 
fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United 
States an authentic copy of such assent whenever the same shall be 
adopted, upon the receipt whereof he shall, by proclamation, announce the 
fact; whereupon, without any further proceedings on the part of Con- 
gress, this joint resolution shall take effect/ 

Though Senator Clark favored the principle of Sumner's 
amendment, he opposed it, as it stood, because it affected a 
resolution which proposed " to recognize the government in 
the State of Louisiana," which in his judgment was still a 
State in the Union, '' having its constitution overthrown, but 
desiring and attempting to establish a new" one; and he 
added, " I hold that we have no power to amend that con- 
stitution; and that is the reason why I shall be obliged to 
vote against it here." 

He spoke for the adoption of Trumbull's resolution and, 
in doing so, traveled some of the ground gone over by Hen- 
derson. The government of Louisiana, Mr. Clark believed, 
belonged to the Union people. He was not aware that any 
definite number of persons was required to constitute a State, 
nor did he understand how the majority by going into re- 
bellion could take away the rights of the loyal minority. 

The guaranty of a republican form of government was 
made, he asserted, to meet precisely such a case as had arisen 
in Louisiana. In this view it became the duty of Congress to 
protect the government established by the minority.^ 

Mr. Pomeroy, speaking to the principle of Sumner's amend- 

' Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1099. 
'Ibid., pp. 1101-1102. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 377 

ment, declared that he would vote against all measures that 
looked like Congressional interference with the right to vote 
in the States. Saulsbury interrupted him to inquire what he 
would have done had the President, or his Secretai-y of War, 
sent armed soldiers to the polls and imposed a test upon 
voters as was done in Delaware, where Democrats were chased 
into swamps and compelled in the night time to lie out in 
the snow. Pomeroy's only reply to this was to relate his 
own experience under Democratic supremacy in the early days 
of Kansas. He resumed his remarks on Louisiana, but these 
had been anticipated by the speakers who preceded him. 
In conclusion he asserted that there were two reasons for 
recognizing Arkansas where there was but one in favor of 
Louisiana.^ 

The Delaware Senator did not fail to call attention to Pom- 
eroy's evasion, and said he was glad to observe a change in the 
spirit of some of his Republican friends. " I think," he said, 
"they begin to scent the danger in the distance; that they 
begin to see that if a Government of law is to be destroyed, 
and power is to be concentrated in Executive hands, or in the 
hands of Executive agents, there is an end of liberty in this 
country. I hail the dawn, therefore, of a better day," ^ 

Mr. Henderson again entered into the discussion, and in the 
course of his remarks drew from Senator Sumner this remark- 
able statement concerning Louisiana : " It is in and it is not. 
[Laughter.] The territory is in; but as yet there is no State 
government that is in." In this discussion Sumner asserted 
also that when the bill of his friend Senator Wade was be- 
fore Congress no one questioned its constitutionality though 
it proposed to interfere in the suffrage and to impose a condi- 
tion upon States at the time of their reconstruction. Pomeroy 
dissented from the doctrine that Congress could reconstruct 

'Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1101-1102. 
*Ibid., p. 1 102. 



378 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the insurgent States, and maintained that the only question 
then was whether they would recognize what the people of 
Louisiana had done. 

Reverdy Johnson pointed out to Sumner the great increase 
of representation in Congress which the South would acquire 
by an extension of the suffrage to negroes. The three fifths 
provision, he said, would be done away with, and he made 
the further observation that for years to come the entire col- 
ored vote of that section would be in the hands of a few 
white men. He urged recognition of both Louisiana and 
Arkansas, so that the constitutional amendment would be- 
come binding, for unless ratified by three fourths of all the 
States it would be open to doubt. 

The session was drawing rapidly toward its close; it was 
late in the evening of February 25, and the resolution under 
discussion was too important to be passed without due con- 
sideration. These circumstances offered Mr. Wade, who 
vehemently opposed the measure, a decent pretext for de- 
manding the " yeas " and " nays " on his motion to postpone 
the subject till the first Monday of December following, 1865. 

Before a vote was reached on this motion, however, Powell 
spoke again at considerable length. In addition to his former 
arguments, many of which were repeated, he said that '* all 
the loyal Union men in the State of Louisiana who refused, 
like supple menials and slaves, to crouch beneath the iron 
military power of General Banks, and take that oath were 
excluded from voting," and he added, " I believe to-day there 
are more men of that description in Louisiana than voted to 
ratify this constitution." 

When asked by Mr. Henderson whether he had heard of 
any objection to it on the part of the loyal men of Louisiana, 
Powell answered that Thomas J. Durant and thirty-one others, 
distinguished, leading, loyal men of that State, had made 
earnest and powerful protest against it, and remonstrated 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 379 

against the admission to Congress of Senators and Repre- 
sentatives from Louisiana. They were also opposed to count- 
ing her electoral vote. Mr. Durant, he believed, was the first 
district-attorney appointed in Louisiana by the present Ex- 
ecutive. Henderson insinuated by an inquiry that Durant 
was himself a candidate for office at that election and took the 
oath prescribed. Powell not being informed on these points, 
the matter was left in doubt. 

The Kentucky Senator took this opportunity to characterize 
the manner of General Banks in his statement before the 
Judiciary Committee as that of a " swift witness, to make a 
case that he thought would cause Louisiana to be admitted." 
He also called upon some advocate of the resolution to ex- 
plain a support of the present measure after voting a few days 
before for the resolution declaring that the electoral vote of 
Louisiana should not be counted. If Louisiana was then a 
legitimate government, why, he asked, was she not entitled 
to cast her electoral vote? He did not then believe it a 
legitimate government and so opposed the counting of her 
electoral vote; but the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Johnson] 
and the Senator from Missouri [Mr. Henderson], who then 
voted with him, now supported the resolution.^ 

Wade's motion to postpone further consideration of the 
joint resolution till the first Monday of December was de- 
feated by a vote of 17 to 12.^ 

In the course of the discussions to postpone Sumner said 
that he would regard its passage as a national calamity. It 
would be the political Bull Run of that Administration, sacri- 
ficing, as it would, a great cause and the great destinies of 
this Republic. When Trumbull taxed him with intent to 
postpone discussion by dilatory motions the Massachusetts 
Senator admitted his opposition and declared that to defeat 

^ Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1106-1107. 
* Ibid., p. 1 107. 



380 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the measure he would employ any weapon in the arsenal of 
parliamentary warfare. 

The friends of the Administration endeavored to press their 
adversaries to take final action on the resolution. The ear- 
nestness of the two factions provoked rather sharp censure of 
Sumner and the few Republicans who acted with him 
and were attempting by dilatory motions to fatigue the Senate 
into a postponement. Doolittle was especially severe on them, 
and particularly on Sumner, who replied with much asperity. 
He was supported by Howard and Chandler, while Trumbull, 
Foster and Doolittle undertook a defence of the resolution 
and its advocates. This wrangling appears to have delighted 
the Democratic members. Mr. Hendricks, indeed, made no 
attempt to conceal his satisfaction. 

" The discordant elements of the Republican party are 
exhibiting themselves here," said the Indiana Senator, " and 
I venture the prophecy that a like exhibition will be witnessed 
over the country within a very few years. But four years 
ago, at the Chicago Convention, when Mr. Lincoln was 
nominated for the Presidency a solemn pledge was made to 
the people of this country that that party, when it came into 
power, would not undertake to interfere with the institutions 
of the States. As soon as the disturbed condition of the 
country gave the pretext for it, the undertaking was com- 
menced; and now, when, in the judgment of some, it has been 
accomplished, there comes up the grave question, what is to 
be done, and what is to be the political condition of the four 
million negroes when they are set free ? And upon that ques- 
tion the real strife of to-night has been witnessed. That is 
the subject and it need not be disguised. It is growing out 
of the discordant elements of the party that now governs the 
country." * 

Trumbull, in reply to an inquiry of Senator Wade, said that 
' Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. iin. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 381 

he had voted against receiving the electoral vote"of Louisiana 
because it had not been recognized. Now he proposed to put 
it in a condition where it could cast electoral votes, and do all 
other acts belonging to a State. 

To this Wade replied that " If the President of the United 
States, operating through his major-generals, can initiate a 
State government, and can bring it here and force us, compel 
us, to receive as associates on this floor these mere mockeries, 
these men of straw who represent nobody, your Republic is 
at an end. 

" Sir, I have heard a great deal about this pretended elec- 
tion in Louisiana that did not come from Major-General 
Banks, and I pronounce the proceeding a mockery. It is not 
pretended that there could be drummed up from the riffraff 
of New Orleans and sent into the vicinity under the mandate 
of a Major-General more than about six thousand votes, where 
over fifty thousand were formerly polled. 

" Talk not to me of your ten per cent, principle. A more 
absurd, monarchical, and anti-American principle was never 
announced on God's earth " ^ 

At this point Senator Sherman, of Ohio, interposed to 
obtain consideration for a revenue measure which he had in 
charge, whereupon his colleague changed somewhat the decla- 
mation against the resolution to a denunciation of its advo- 
cates, especially Trumbull, upon whom he retorted the charge 
of retarding legitimate business. Howard resented the charge 
of radical factiousness and denounced Trumbull with con- 
siderable warmth. Sherman suggested that enough had been 
said on both sides, and in the lighter skirmishing of the 
breathing-spell which followed, Mr. Sprague, of Rhode Is- 
land, hitherto a silent spectator of these exciting scenes, de- 
clared that he held in his possession a paper indicating the 
* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1128. 



382 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

names of the members of the Louisiana Legislature, and it 
showed that twenty-five, or twenty-seven or thirty of those 
gentlemen who constituted that assembly were officeholders 
of the Federal Government, or the government of the State, 
which, he said, was the same thing.* 

While Sherman's measure and Trumbull's resolution were 
competing for priority of consideration Sumner remarked 
that during the preceding summer, 1864, he had met a dis- 
tinguished gentleman just returned from Louisiana; he had 
been present at some of the sittings of the convention, having 
been in New Orleans in discharge of important public duties. 
This gentleman, added Sumner, said compendiously that the 
convention was " nothing but a stupendous hoax." 

When Reverdy Johnson inquired the name of Sumner's 
informant. Senator Grimes replied that he could furnish a 
large number of names of persons present in New Orleans 
when the convention was held, and added : " If the Senate will 
give a committee I will undertake to prove and I will prove 
that the voters whose votes were polled in the outlying parishes 
at Thibodeaux and Placquemines, and other places, were car- 
ried in army transports to those places where they polled the 
votes, being discharged soldiers and persons belonging in 
New Orleans, and were brought back to New Orleans, and 
were not residents of the places where they purported to 
vote." 2 

Sumner, immediately after the uncontroverted statement 
of Mr. Grimes, added, with more energy than elegance: 
" The pretended State government in Louisiana is utterly in- 
defensible whether you look at its origin or its character. To 
describe it, I must use plain language. It is a mere seven- 
months' abortion, begotten by the bayonet in criminal con- 
junction with the spirit of caste, and born before its time, 

'Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1129. 
» Ibid. 



SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA 383 

rickety, unformed, unfinished — whose continued existence 
will be a burden, a reproach, and a wrong. That is the whole 
case; and yet the Senator from Illinois now presses it upon 
the Senate at this moment to the exclusion of the important 
public business of the country." ^ 

The urgency of the army and navy appropriation bills pre- 
vented for the time further consideration of the Louisiana 
question. The subject, however, was again brought before 
the Senate on March 2, 1865, by Mr. Doolittle, who had re- 
ceived and had been requested to file with the secretary of the 
Senate a certificate, under seal of the State of Louisiana, of the 
election of Michael Hahn as a Senator of the United States 
from the State of Louisiana for six years from March 4, 1865. 
Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, opposed its reception. Doolittle's 
motion to have it laid on the table and filed was, however, 
agreed to. 

Only two days of the session remained; in the temper of 
the Senate it was impossible that the resolution could pass at 
that time, and the House had not yet taken it up for discus- 
sion. In these circumstances the measure was abandoned, 
though very reluctantly, by its champions. 
* Globe, Part II., 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 1129. 



XI 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 

THE Emancipation Proclamation did not affect, as is 
well known, the status of slaves in the loyal border 
States or in the excepted parts of Virginia and Lou- 
isiana. The State of Tennessee, too, as we have seen, was not 
named in the edict of freedom ; that was published by the Pres- 
ident simply as a measure of military necessity, and was not 
regarded by him or by others as operative to prevent, when 
war had ceased, a revival of servitude in the insurgent States, 
for negroes could easily be imported from those loyal com- 
monwealths still tolerating that institution. It was uncertain, 
too, how the proclamation would affect the status of slaves in 
those districts not yet overrun by the Union armies. In the 
border States, in Tennessee and in the excepted parts of 
Louisiana and Virginia there were probably 2,000,000 men in 
bondage. In order, then, to abolish universally as well as 
permanently to prohibit involuntary servitude an amendment 
of the Constitution was proposed in the familiar language of 
the sixth section of the ordinance of 1787. Though it passed 
the Senate, April 8, 1864, it failed at that time to receive in 
the House the requisite two thirds vote. It has been seen 
how upon the recommendation of Mr. Lincoln it was recon- 
sidered and passed by the Representatives at a succeeding ses- 
sion, January 31, 1865, and submitted to the States for their 
action. It was adopted by his own State, Illinois, on the fol- 
lowing day. By the close of February sixteen others had fol- 
lowed its example, and before the President's death twenty in 
all had ratified the Amendment. To Mr. Lincoln, who had 
384 



I 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 385 

long held anti-slavery opinions, this expression of public sen- 
timent was extremely grateful; indeed, less than two months 
before his assassination he declared his satisfaction at the 
popular verdict, and his confidence that the States would 
consummate what Congress had so nobly begun. The Thir- 
teenth Amendment, however, was not announced as part of 
the organic law until after the Presidential plan of reconstruc- 
tion had been ignored by the Thirty-ninth Congress. This 
subject, therefore, need not be further discussed in these 
pages. 

The extraordinary amount of work actually completed by 
the national Legislature can be comprehended only by con- 
sidering the degree of perfection to which the committee sys- 
tem has been carried under congressional government. Meas- 
ures that conduct the reader over vast stretches of the records 
of Congress occupy but a day or two in the calendar. 
The discussions described in the two preceding chapters did 
not, as might be supposed, engage the entire attention of Fed- 
eral legislators. It was desirable, if, indeed, it was not essen- 
tial, that the sentiments of the lawmaking body of the nation 
be authoritatively declared on the question of admitting mem- 
bers to Congress from those States reconstituted under the 
Executive plan; definitive action in the matter of the electoral 
votes which they presented was also awaited with not a little 
interest. Scarcely inferior in importance and more instruct- 
ive than these measures was the passage of an act, approved 
March 3, 1865, which created in the War Department a " Bu- 
reau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands." As 
the system of relief then inaugurated was destined to become 
an important agency in the work of reconstruction a brief 
account of its origin and institution may not be deemed super- 
fluous. 

A former chapter has related how great numbers of " con- 
trabands," by assembling early in the war at Fortress Monroe 



386 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and Newport News, taxed the ingenuity of even General But- 
ler to provide for their maintenance; it also noticed an attempt 
under Mr. E. L. Pierce to improve the condition of aban- 
doned slaves in South Carolina, and the friendly interest of 
Secretary Chase in that experiment. But the hundreds of 
fugitives within Federal lines in May, 1861, had grown to 
be millions by the beginning of 1865. Of this army of home- 
less freedmen the policy of enlisting colored troops pro- 
vided directly for nearly 200,000 able-bodied males. The 
women, the children and the large class unsuitable for mili- 
tary service left a multitude still unprovided for. Some 
relief, it is true, was afforded by the Treasury Department, 
which undertook to establish on abandoned and confiscated 
lands colonies of self-supporting negroes, but the ignorance 
and rapacity of many persons entrusted with the supervision 
of this work led to its general failure. Here and there, in- 
deed, more satisfactory results were obtained, though these 
isolated successes seldom reached the point of actual en- 
couragement. The South Carolina experiment may, therefore, 
be properly regarded as the germ of the Freedmen's Bureau. 
The progress of these communities had been watched anx- 
iously by the abolition and the kindred associations which 
sprang up to continue the work that anti-slavery men had 
begun. On this subject a committee representing the Freed- 
men's Aid Societies of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and 
Cincinnati addressed, December i, 1863, an able memorial to 
the President. Without expressing a favorable opinion of 
the plan suggested by the petitioners, Mr. Lincoln referred 
the question, as one of great magnitude and importance, to 
the consideration of Congress. The Freedmen's Aid Socie- 
ties, however, had been anticipated by Representative Eliot, 
of Massachusetts, who had offered, January 12, 1863, a bill 
to establish a Bureau of Emancipation, which was referred to 
a select committee; but other business, regarded as more 



J 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 387 

urgent, prevented them from reporting at that time a measure 
which had been prepared. At the succeeding session the 
proposition was offered again. After numerous efforts to 
secure favorable action, efforts extending over a period of 
two years, Congress took the subject into consideration. 
The House proposed one, the Senate a different measure; a 
committee of conference suggested something unlike either, 
though embodying important features of both. This, like 
every proposition affecting the negro, encountered consider- 
able opposition. The creation of such a bureau, said its ad- 
versaries, conceded the very point that pro-slavery men had 
always maintained; namely, that the negro was incapable of 
taking care of himself. The extent of its powers, its dura- 
tion and the cost of its maintenance were successively made 
grounds of opposition by those hostile to its establishment. 
Nor did its enemies fail to point out the great temptation to 
abuse which was offered by the system. 

The act established in the War Department, to continue 
during the rebellion and for one year thereafter, a bureau 
to which should be committed the management of all con- 
fiscated or abandoned lands, and the control of all subjects 
relating to refugees and freedmen from any district within 
the territory embraced in the operations of the army, under 
such regulations as might be adopted by the head of the 
bureau and approved by the President. 

The conduct of the bureau was entrusted to a commissioner 
appointed by the President with the concurrence of the 
Senate. In the exercise of his functions he was to be assisted 
by such clerks as the Secretary of War might assign him; 
their number, of course, was limited by law. For his com- 
pensation the head of the new bureau was to receive a sum 
fixed at $3,000 per annum. To aid in executing the provisions 
of the act the President was authorized to select, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, one assistant commis- 



388 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

sioner for each of the States declared to be in insurrection, not, 
however, to exceed ten in number, each to receive an annual 
salary of $2,500. 

The Secretary of War, besides assigning clerks of the sev- 
eral grades mentioned in the law, was authorized to issue, 
under regulations which he might himself prescribe, such pro- 
visions, clothing and fuel as might be deemed needful for the 
immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and 
suffering refugees and freedmen as well as their wives and 
children. Any military officer could be detailed to duty under 
the act, but without increase of pay or allowances. 

It was further provided that the commissioner, " under the 
direction of the President, shall have authority to set apart, 
for the use of loyal refugees and freedmen, such tracts of 
land within the insurrectionary States as shall have been 
abandoned, or to which the United States shall have ac- 
quired title by confiscation or sale, or otherwise, and to every 
male citizen, whether refugee or freedman, as aforesaid, there 
shall be assigned not more than forty acres of such land, 
and the person to whom it was so assigned shall be protected 
in the use and enjoyment of the land for the term of three 
years at an annual rent not exceeding six per centum upon 
the value of said land, as it was appraised by the State au- 
thorities in the year i860, for the purpose of taxation, and 
in case no such appraisal can be found, then the rental shall 
be based upon the estimated value of the land in said year, 
to be ascertained in such manner as the commissioner may 
by regulation prescribe. At the end of said term, or at any 
time during said term, the occupants of any parcels so as- 
signed may purchase the land, and receive such title thereto 
as the United States can convey, upon paying therefor the 
value of the land, as ascertained and fixed for the purpose of 
determining the annual rent aforesaid." ^ 
* Globe, 2 Sess. 38th Cong., p. 141 (appendix). 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 389 

It was made the duty of the assistant commissioners to 
submit a quarterly report of their proceedings to the commis- 
sioner, who in turn was required to report annually to the 
President before the commencement of each regular session 
of Congress. Special reports might from time to time be 
requested of either the head of the bureau or his subordinates. 

The bureau thus established was organized principally by 
ofificers of the regular army under direction of General 
Oliver O. Howard, who had been selected by President John- 
son as commissioner. It soon grew to vast proportions. 
At first it was economically managed and beneficent in its 
influence; subsequently, however, it degenerated into an 
abuse. Interesting and instructive as would be an inquiry 
into its operations, the history of this politico-philanthropic 
experiment does not fall within the limits of this work. 

Since the adjournment, February 27, 1861. of the Peace 
Convention, which had been in session at Washington en- 
deavoring to discover, if possible, a means of avoiding the 
irrepressible conflict, there was a large class who believed that 
if only they had been directing the policy of Government the 
outbreak could have been averted ; even when war was flagrant 
and passions were highest this class, though diminished greatly 
in numbers, did not altogether despair of effecting a settle- 
ment between the sections. Besides these well-meaning 
patriots there were not a few who were ambitious of notoriety 
or possessed of an undue opinion of their own importance. 
Persons of both classes attempted from time to time to bring 
about an armistice which would facilitate negotiations between 
the two governments. The efforts of these men have no fur- 
ther bearing on the subject of reconstruction than as they 
serve to show Mr. Lincoln's views in successive stages of the 
conflict. 

Prominent among these attempts was the Jacquess-Gil- 
more mission, which has been described in an interesting vol- 



390 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ume of Rebellion reminiscences by one of the participants.* 
Horace Greeley's career as a diplomat is also a familiar story, 
which at once illustrates the guilelessness of the editor and 
the sagacity of the President. Mr. Greeley's failure at Niag- 
ara Falls, however, did not discourage a similar undertak- 
ing by Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, who, with no greater success, 
had an interview in Canada with his former friend Jacob 
Thompson.^ 

More important, because of its consequences, than the 
work of any of these volunteer commissioners was the visit 
of Francis P. Blair, Sr., to Richmond. This distinguished 
politician and editor had in the days of Nullification assisted 
in shaping the policy of the Government. The bosom friend 
and confidential adviser of Andrew Jackson, Mr. Blair 
thoroughly understood Southern feeling, and from long 
residence in Washington was intimately acquainted with 
Southern leaders. His political victories in the past en- 
couraged, no doubt, the hope of some notable achievement 
to crown his maturer years. For some time he had been 
meditating a plan of reunion which would not only end the 
strife but contribute to heal the wounds of war. Though 
anxious to communicate his project to the President, he re- 
ceived no encouragement to do so. By requesting Blair to 
call upon him after the fall of Savannah Mr. Lincoln evaded 
a discussion of the subject. That contingency, however, was 
not remote, and late in December the veteran political leader 
received from the President a card bearing these words : 

Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go South, and 
return. 

A, Lincoln. 
December 28, 1864. 

^ Personal Recollectionsi of Abraham Lincoln, by James R. Gilmore. 
' Gorham's Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton, Vol. II. pp. 
148-153. 



I 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 391 

With this credential Mr. Blair went at once to the camp 
of General Grant, whence under flags of truce he sent two 
communications to Jefferson Davis requesting, among other 
things, permission for an interview. This, after some delay, 
was granted, and on the 12th of January, 1865, he found 
himself in Richmond face to face with the Confederate Presi- 
dent. What transpired is accurately known from accounts 
of the meeting by both Blair and Davis. The former ad- 
mitted frankly that Mr. Lincoln afforded him no opportunity 
to explain the object of his mission, and, indeed, appeared 
anxious to avoid an interview on that subject. When he had 
been assured that the Confederate authorities were under no 
engagements to European powers that would prevent their 
entering into arrangements with the Government of the 
United States Mr. Blair unfolded his plan by reading to 
Mr. Davis a carefully prepared paper embodying the fol- 
lowing suggestions : 

Slavery, he said, was doomed, for even the South itself had 
proposed to employ the slave in winning its independence. 
That institution, therefore, no longer remained as an obstacle 
to peace. Louis Napoleon, he continued, had declared pub- 
licly that his object was to make the Latin race supreme in 
the southern part of North America. This, indeed, had been 
an idea of the Emperor's uncle, who desired at one time to 
make conquests of territory in the States bordering the Gulf, 
and the foothold already effected in Mexico was one step in 
the accomplishment of this grand design. After developing 
these points Mr. Blair added, "Jefferson Davis is the for- 
tunate man who now holds the commanding position to en- 
counter this formidable scheme of conquest, and whose fiat 
can at the same time deliver his country from the bloody 
agony now covering it in mourning. He can drive Maxi- 
milian from his American throne, and baffle the designs of 
Napoleon to subject our Southern people to the * Latin race/ " 



392 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

How this was to be accomplished Mr. Blair's paper out- 
lined. President Lincoln's amnesty proclamation looked to 
an armistice, which could be enlarged to embrace all engaged 
in the war; then by secret preliminaries to a cessation of 
hostilities Mr. Davis could transfer to Texas such a portion 
of the Confederate army as was deemed adequate to his 
purpose. With a Southern force on the Rio Grande and 
Juarez conciliated it could enter Mexico and expel her in- 
vaders. If these combined forces were insufficient, multi- 
tudes from the Federal army, officers and men, would be 
found ready to engage in the enterprise. Both Republicans 
and Democrats of the North had declared their adherence to 
the Monroe Doctrine. 

After thus indicating for Mr. Davis a means of escape 
from his dilemma the adroit politician next appealed power- 
fully to his desire of fame. " He who expels the Bonaparte- 
Hapsburg dynasty from our Southern flank," proceeded Mr. 
Blair, " which General Jackson in one of his letters warned 
me was the vulnerable point through which foreign invasion 
would come, will ally his name with those of Washington 
and Jackson as a defender of the liberty of the country. If 
in delivering Mexico he should model its States in form and 
principle to adapt them to our Union and add a new Southern 
constellation to its benignant sky while rounding off our 
possessions on the continent at the Isthmus, and opening the 
way to blending the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, thus 
embracing our Republic in the arms of the ocean, he would 
complete the work of Jefferson, who first set one foot of our 
colossal Government on the Pacific by a stride from the Gulf 
of Mexico." * 

Blair remarked in conclusion, " There is my problem, Mr. 
Davis; do you think it possible to be solved? " After a little 
consideration came the reply, " I think so." Touching the 

* N. and H., Vol. X. pp. 101-102. 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 39 j 

question of bringing the sections together again Mr. Davis 
observed that though a spirit of vindictiveness had been en- 
gendered by the war, time and events M^ould do something 
toward its removal. The circumstance of Northern and 
Southern armies united in a common cause would, he be- 
lieved, assist greatly in restoring the old feeling. He also 
acknowledged to his visitor that European powers were 
pleased to see the sections exhausting their resources in 
mutual war. 

Thus was the Confederate leader persuaded to entertain 
the bold project of conquering Mexico under pretence of 
relieving the Monroe Doctrine from its peril. The explana- 
tion of this easy conversion, however, lies mainly in the fact 
that Mr. Davis, however he might endeavor to conceal his 
convictions, was convinced that the resources of the South 
were scarcely equal to another campaign. Like other leaders 
of the Confederacy he was anxious to seize any means of 
escape from an embarrassing situation. He proposed to Mr. 
Blair, therefore, the appointment of commissioners, and men- 
tioned Judge Campbell, formerly of the United States Su- 
preme Court, as one qualified by his talents and integrity 
to undertake such a mission. 

During his short sojourn in Richmond Mr. Blair learned 
from other prominent secessionists the hopelessness of the 
rebellion, and this, perhaps, was the only tangible result of 
his celebrated intrigue. To initiate the project Mr. Davis 
handed him a letter to be shown President Lincoln. That 
interesting communication was as follows: 

Richmond, Virginia, 12 Jany., '65. 
F. P. Blair, Esq.: 

Sir: I have deemed it proper, and probably desirable to you. to give 
you, in this form, the substance of remarks made by me, to be repeated 
by you to President Lincoln, etc., etc. I have no disposition to find 
obstacles in forms, and am willing now, as heretofore, to enter into 
negotiations for the restoration of peace; and am ready to send a com- 



394 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

mission whenever I have reason to suppose it will be received, or to 
receive a commission, if the United States Government shall choose to 
send one. That, notwithstanding the rejection of our former offers, I 
would, if you could promise that a commissioner, minister, or other agent, 
would be received, appoint one immediately, and renew the effort to enter 
into conference, with a view to secure peace to the two countries. 

Yours, etc., 

Jefferson Davis/ 

Mr. Lincoln's only response to the communication thus 
brought to his attention was to open a little wider the door 
for negotiation by sending to Mr. Blair the following letter : 

Washington, January i8, 1865. 
F. P. Blair, Esq.: 

Sir: You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the 12th in- 
stant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and 
shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he, or any other influential 
person now resisting the National authority, may informally send to 
me, with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common 
country. Yours, etc., 

A. Lincoln. 

With this note Mr. Blair returned to Richmond framing 
as best he could excuses why President Lincoln rejected the 
overtures of Jefferson Davis for a joint invasion of Mexico. 
With the nature of these explanations this essay is not con- 
cerned. To cover his retreat from an unsuccessful intrigue 
the disappointed commissioner then suggested that, perhaps, 
Grant and Lee could enter into negotiations for peace with 
more assurance of success than politicians could hope to do. 
Though Mr. Davis offered no objection to this proposal, 
Blair was forced soon after to report that military negotia- 
tions were out of the question. 

The Confederate leader was then compelled to choose 
between obstinate perseverance in his policy of a war for 
Southern independence or to accept frankly Mr. Lincoln's 

» N. and H., Vol. X. p. 107. 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 395 

offer of reunion. Blair's first visit to Richmond did not 
escape observation, and, when his second conference was 
known, interest in the purpose of his mission became intense. 
Without some effort at negotiation Mr. Davis could not after- 
ward satisfy the peace party in the South without subjecting 
himself to the injurious imputation of preferring war. In 
these circumstances, and after consultation with his cabinet, 
he authorized Alexander H. Stephens, John A. Campbell and 
R. M. T. Hunter to proceed to Washington as a commission 
for the purpose of informally conferring with Mr. Lincoln 
" upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for the 
purpose of securing peace to the two countries." They were 
burdened with no instructions, and only one condition was 
insisted upon, that is, an acknowledgment of Southern in- 
dependence. 

Toward the end of January they presented themselves at 
the Federal military lines near Richmond, and, after an 
exchange of telegrams with the authorities in Washington, 
were permitted to pass on to Fortress Monroe. It was the 
original intention of President Lincoln to intrust the work 
of the conference wholly to Secretary Seward, and for this 
purpose he gave him the following written instructions: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, January 31, 1865. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State: 

You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and in- 
formally confer wtth Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the 
basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January i8, 1865, a copy of 
which you have. You will make known to them that three things are in- 
dispensable, to wit: First. The restoration of the national authority 
throughout all the States. Second. No receding by the executive of 
the United States on the slavery question from the position assumed 
thereon in the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding docu- 
ments. Third. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war 
and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government. You will 



396 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

inform them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the 
above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere 
liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and report it to 
me. You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. 

Yours, etc., 

Abraham Lincoln.* 

The different if not conflicting statemenrs as to the object 
of their mission nearly led to a return of the Confederate 
representatives without any interview whatever. General 
Grant, fearing the unfavorable influence on the Union cause 
of such a result, sent to Secretary Stanton a confidential dis- 
patch in which he referred to the evident sincerity of Ste- 
phens and Hunter. He also expressed his regret that they 
were about to return without an expression on the subject 
of their mission from any person in authority. President 
Lincoln, who was about to recall Mr. Seward by telegraph, 
decided, on reading Grant's message, to join his Secretary at 
Fortress Monroe, for which place he set out at once. 

The famous conference, which took place February 3, 
1865, on board a steamer at Hampton Roads, has been 
treated in detail by nearly every historian of the Rebellion, 
and, therefore, need only be briefly noticed in these pages. 
An informal discussion of four hours occurred on the River 
Queen. By a previous agreement no writings or memoranda 
were made ; hence our principal knowledge of what transpired 
at that celebrated interview is derived from accounts sub- 
sequently written out from memory by the Confederate com- 
missioners, and from Secretary Seward's letter to Charles 
Francis Adams, United States Minister to England. 

Mr. Stephens, who began the discussion, asked whether 
there was no way of restoring former relations; to this Mr. 
Lincoln replied, " There was but one way that he knew of, 
and that was, for those who were resisting the laws of the 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 644-645. 



I 

i 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 397 

Union to cease that resistance." Stephens observed that they 
had been led to beheve that both sections might for a time 
cease their present strife and unite on some continental ques- 
tion until passion had somewhat subsided and accommodation 
become possible. 

To this suggestion Mr. Lincoln replied promptly : " I sup- 
pose you refer to something that Mr. Blair has said. Now 
it is proper to state at the beginning that whatever he said 
was of his own accord, and without the least authority from 
me." The President then stated that before the visit to 
Richmond he had flatly refused to hear Mr. Blair's proposi- 
tions; he was willing, however, to hear proposals for peace 
on the conditions expressed in his reply to the letter of Mr. 
Davis. The restoration of the Union was a sine qua non with 
him, therefore his instructions that no conference be held 
except on that basis. 

Though the Confederate statesmen had resolved not to 
enter into any agreement that would require their forces to 
unite in an invasion of Mexico, Mr. Stephens continued to 
press the subject, and this after Mr. Lincoln had refused 
even to discuss the question. The President then brought 
the conversation back to the original object of the meeting, 
and declared that he could not entertain a proposition looking 
to an armistice until the paramount question of reunion 
was first determined. 

The terms of reunion were then discussed. On this subject 
Mr. Lincoln is reported by the commissioners to have said 
that the shortest way to effect this was to disband the in- 
surgent armies and permit "the National authorities to re- 
sume their functions." As to the admission of members to 
Congress from the seceding States the President believed 
they ought to be received, and also that they would be; how- 
ever, he could enter into no stipulations on that subject. By the 
cessation of resistance, he is alleged to have declared, the 



398 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

States would be immediately restored to their practical rela- 
tions to the Union. This sentiment was probably ascribed 
to him for party purposes. 

As the enforcement of the confiscation and other penal laws 
was left entirely with him he assured them that the Execu- 
tive power would be exercised with the utmost liberality. 
The courts could determine all questions involving rights of 
property, and Congress, after passion had been somewhat com- 
posed, would, no doubt, be liberal in making restitution of 
forfeited property, or would indemnify those who had 
suffered. 

The President refused to promise any modification what- 
ever of the terms of his Emancipation Proclamation. He 
regarded it as a judicial question. How the courts would 
decide it he did not know. His own opinion was that as the 
proclamation was only a war measure, as soon as the war 
ceased it would be inoperative for the future. It would be 
held to apply only to such slaves as had come under its 
operation while it was in active exercise. The courts, how- 
ever, might hold that it effectually emancipated all the slaves 
in the States to which it applied at the time. He is reported 
further to have said that he interfered with slavery to maintain 
the Union, and then only with hesitation and under pressure of 
a public necessity. He had always favored emancipation, but 
not immediate emancipation. 

On the same occasion he is said to have stated as his 
belief that the people of the North were not less responsible 
for slavery than those of the South; if the war should then 
cease, with the voluntary abolition of slavery by the States, 
he would favor, individually, payment by the Government 
of a fair indemnity for the loss to owners. That feeling, he 
believed, had an extensive existence in the loyal States. He 
knew some who were in favor of an appropriation as high 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 399 

as $400,000,000 for that purpose. However, he could enter 
into no stipulation. He merely expressed his own views 
and what he believed to be the views of others upon the 
subject. 

Relative to the division of Virginia Mr. Lincoln said he 
could give only " an individual opinion, which was, that 
Western Virginia would continue to be recognized as a sep- 
arate State in the Union." 

Seward brought to the notice of the commissioners one 
topic which to them was new, that is, the passage by Con- 
gress three days earlier of the proposed amendment to the 
Federal Constitution. He is reported to have said that it 
was passed in deference to the war spirit, and that if the 
South would agree to immediate restoration its ratification 
might be defeated. This, however, is doubtful, for the Cabi- 
net as well as the President approved the action of Congress 
in submitting the Thirteenth Amendment to the considera- 
tion of the States; besides, it is not in harmony with Mr. 
Seward's anti-slavery record. 

In urging on Mr. Stephens separate State action to effect 
a cessation of hostilities, the President said : " If I resided 
in Georgia, with my present sentiments, I'll tell you what I 
would do if I were in your place. I would go home and get 
the Governor of the State to call the Legislature together, 
and get them to recall all the State troops from the war; 
elect Senators and Members to Congress, and ratify this 
constitutional amendment prospectively, so as to take effect 
— say in five years. Such a ratification would be valid, in my 
opinion. I have looked into the subject, and think such 
a prospective ratification would be valid. Whatever may 
have been the views of your people before the war, they must 
be convinced now that slavery is doomed. It cannot last long 
in any event, and the best course, it seems to me, for your 



400 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

public men to pursue would be to adopt such a policy as will 
avoid, as far as possible, the evils of immediate emancipa- 
tion. This would be my course, if I were in your place." ^ 

The advice was wasted. When the party was on the 
point of separating, Mr. Stephens again asked the President 
to reconsider the plan of an armistice on the basis of a 
Mexican expedition. " Well, Stephens," replied Mr. Lincoln, 
"I will reconsider it; but I do not think my mind will 
change." Thus ended the famous Hampton Roads confer- 
ence. 

On their return to Richmond the commissioners made a 
formal report to Mr. Davis of the failure of negotiations; 
this he transmitted to the Confederate Congress with an 
artful letter designed to strengthen the war party in the 
South, and to silence effectually the adversaries of his ad- 
ministration. To improve this advantage a day was ap- 
pointed for the purpose of getting a popular expression on 
the result of the conference. Business was generally sus- 
pended, and the people crowded every building in the city 
suitable for holding large assemblies. Churches, theatres and 
halls of legislation were engaged for the occasion. Twenty 
orators, among the ablest in the South, told their hearers of 
the Northern " ultimatum," not omitting to describe elo- 
quently all the consequences of subjugation. The old war 
spirit appeared to have been kindled once more; " But," says 
Mr. Pollard, " it was only the sickly glare of an expiring 
flame; there was no steadiness in the excitement; there was 
no virtue in huzzas; the inspiration ended with the voices 
and ceremonies that invoked it; and it was found that the 
spirit of the people of the Confederacy was too weak, too 
much broken to act with effect, or assume the position of 

* An interesting account of this entire subject will be found in Nicolay 
and Hay's Lincoln, Vol. X. ch. VI.; see also Raymond's Life of Lincoln, 
pp. 647-662. 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 401 

erect and desperate defiance." * In March General Lee re- 
vealed the weakness of his army at Fort Steadman; Grant's 
movements around Petersburg followed in April; the rest is a 
familiar story. 

From this brief discussion of topics only allied to the Presi- 
dential method of re-union it is time to resume our examina- 
tion of the main theme. 

It is almost a trite observation to remark that President 
Lincoln's opinions on public questions were formed only after 
mature deliberation, and that to the conclusions thus reached 
he adhered with inflexible tenacity. Notwithstanding the sen- 
timents of Congress on the question of reconstruction he 
evinced a decided preference for his own. This is proved 
by a number of letters and speeches from which two may be 
selected both because of the time of their appearance and 
the station of the persons to whom they were addressed. To 
General Hurlbut, who had temporarily succeeded Banks in 
command at New Orleans, the President wrote, November 
14, 1864, the following admonitory letter: 

Few things, since I have been here, have impressed me more painfully 
than what, for four or five months past, has appeared a bitter military 
opposition to the new State government of Louisiana. I still indulged 
some hope that I was mistaken in the fact; but copies of a correspond- 
ence on the subject between General Canby and yourself, and shown 
me to-day, dispel that hope. A very fair proportion of the people of 
Louisiana have inaugurated a new State government, making an excel- 
lent new constitution — better for the poor black man than we have in 
Illinois. This was done under military protection, directed by me, in 
the belief, still sincerely entertained, that with such a nucleus around 
which to build we could get the State into position again sooner than 
otherwise. In this belief a general promise of protection and support, 
applicable alike to Louisiana and other States, was given in the last 
annual message. During the formation of the new government and con- 
stitution they were supported by nearly every loyal person, and opposed 
by every secessionist. And this support and this opposition, from the 
respective standpoints of the parties, was perfectly consistent and 

*The Lost Cause, pp. 684-685. 



402 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

logical. Every Unionist ought to wish the new government to succeed;- 
and every disunionist must desire it to fail. Its failure would gladden 
the heart of Slidell in Europe, and of every enemy of the old flag in the 
world. Every advocate of slavery naturally desires to see blasted and 
crushed the liberty promised the black man by the new constitution. But 
why General Canby and General Hurlbut should join on the same side 
is to me incomprehensible. 

Of course, in the condition of things at New Orleans, the military 
must not be thwarted by the civil authority; but when the constitutional 
Convention, for what it deems a breach of privilege, arrests an editor in 
no way connected with the military, the military necessity for insulting the 
Convention and forcibly discharging the editor is difficult to perceive. 
Neither is the military necessity for protecting the people against paying 
large salaries fixed by a legislature of their own choosing very apparent. 
Equally difficult to perceive is the military necessity for forcibly inter- 
posing to prevent a bank from loaning its own money to the State. These 
things, if they have occurred, are, at the best, no better than gratuitous 
hostility. I wish I could hope that they may be shown to not have 
occurred. To make assurance against misunderstanding, I repeat that 
in the existing condition of things in Louisiana, the military must not be 
thwarted by the civil authority; and I add that on points of difference 
the commanding general must be judge and master. But I also add that 
in the exercise of this judgment and control, a purpose, obvious and 
scarcely unavowed, to transcend all military necessity, in order to crush 
out the civil government, will not be overlooked.^ 

A similar communication, though less peremptory in tone, 
he felt constrained to send to General E. R. S. Canby, who 
had been assigned to command in the military division of 
West Mississippi. Under date of December 12, 1864, he 
wrote that officer: 

I think it is probable that you are laboring under some misapprehension 
as to the purpose, or rather the motive, of the Government on two 
points — cotton and the new Louisiana State government. 

It is conceded that military operations are the first in importance ; and 
as to what is indispensable to these operations, the department com- 
mander must be judge and master. 

But the other matters mentioned I suppose to be of public importance 
also; and what I have attempted in regard to them is not merely a 
concession to private interest and pecuniary greed. 

* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 597-598. 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 403 

As to the new State government of Louisiana. Most certainly there 
is no worthy object in getting up a piece of machinery merely to pay 
salaries and give political consideration to certain men. But it is a 
worthy object to again get Louisiana into proper practical relations with 
the nation, and we can never finish this if we never begin it. Much 
good work is already done, and surely nothing can be gained by 
throwing it away. 

I do not wish either cotton or the new State government to take 
precedence of the military while the necessity for the military remains; 
but there is a strong public reason for treating each with so much favor 
as may not be substantially detrimental to the military.* 

That Mr. Lincoln never modified these opinions is conclu- 
sively proved by the last public utterance of his life. In 
addressing the citizens of Washington, who were holding a 
demonstration in consequence of Lee's surrender, the Presi- 
dent on the evening of April 1 1 said : 

By these recent successes the reinauguration of the national authority 
— reconstruction — which has had a large share of thought from the 
first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with 
great difficulty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, 
there is no authorized organ for us to treat with — no one man has 
authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must 
begin with and mold from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor 
is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ 
among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction. 
As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon 
myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly 
offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my 
knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting 
up and seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. 

In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, the public 
knows. In the annual message of December, 1863, and in the accom- 
panying proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the 
phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, should be ac- 
ceptable to and sustained by the executive Government of the nation. 
I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly 
be acceptable, and I also distinctly protested that the executive claimed 
no right to say when or whether members should be admitted to seats 
in Congress from such States. This plan was in advance submitted to 
the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One 

' Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. pp. 616-617. 



404 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of them suggested that I should then and in that connection apply the 
Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia 
and Louisiana ; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for 
freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power 
in regard to the admission of members of Congress. But even he ap- 
proved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed 
or touched by the action of Louisiana. 

The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the 
whole State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously 
excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and it is 
silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members 
to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the 
Cabinet fully approved the plan. The message went to Congress, and I 
received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal, and not a 
single objection to it from any professed emancipationist came to my 
knowledge until after the news reached Washington that the people of 
Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July 
1862, I had corresponded with different persons supposed to be inter- 
ested [in] seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. 
When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached 
New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that the 
people, with his military cooperation, would reconstruct substantially 
on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried 
it, and the result is known. Such has been my only agency in getting 
up the Louisiana government. 

As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But as bad 
promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, 
and break it whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse 
to the public interest; but I have not yet been so convinced. I have 
been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in 
which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be 
definitely fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called, 
are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonishment to 
his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men 
endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any public 
expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor 
yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while 
it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than 
the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may 
hereafter become, that question is bad as the basis of a controversy, 
and good for nothing at all — a merely pernicious abstraction. 

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper 
practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the Govern- 
ment, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them 
into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, 



INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 405 

but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering 
whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. 
Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial 
whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts 
necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these 
States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his 
own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from 
without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never 
having been out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on 
which the new Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to 
all if it contained 50,000, or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 
12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective 
franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that 
it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our 
cause as soldiers. 

Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it 
stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser 
to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? 
Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union 
sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government ? Some 
twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have 
sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political 
power of the State, held elections, organized a State government, 
adopted a free State constitution, giving the benefit of public schools 
equally to black and white, and empowering the legislature to confer the 
elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature has already 
voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Con- 
gress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thou- 
sand persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to perpetual 
freedom in the State — committed to the very things, and nearly all the 
things, the nation wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and its 
assistance to make good their committal. 

Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disor- 
ganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man : You 
are worthless or worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. 
To the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these, your old 
masters, hold to your lips we will dash from you, and leave you to the 
chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague 
and undefined when, where, and how. If this course, discouraging and 
paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana 
into proper practical relations with the Union, I have so far been unable 
to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain the new 
government of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We 
encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to 
adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight 



4o6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The 
colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, 
and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the 
elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already 
advanced steps toward it than by running backward over them? Con- 
cede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should 
be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching 
the egg than by smashing it. 

Again, if we reject Louisiana we also reject one vote in favor of the 
proposed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this propo- 
sition it has been argued that no more than three fourths of those States 
which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the 
amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than to say 
that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently 
questioned, while a ratification by three fourths of all the States would 
be unquestioned and unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can 
Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union 
sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State government? 
What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. 
And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important 
and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new and un- 
precedented is the whole case that no exclusive and inflexible plan can 
safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and 
inflexible plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important 
principles may and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the 
phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the 
people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act when 
satisfied that action will be proper. 

The promised announcement was never made; for within 
three days the great career of Abraham Lincoln was brought 
to a close. The inherent difficulties of reconstruction, as 
well as the mischievous consequences of faction among Union 
men, he perceived and acknowledged at the outset. Pre- 
cisely how he would have removed the one and, without 
breaking with his party, have avoided the other we can never 
know. His uniform success in dealing with other embar- 
rassing questions appears to justify the opinion that he would 
not have failed altogether in solving the greater problem pre- 
sented by the return of peace. This subject will be further 
discussed in the succeeding chapter. 






XII 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL 
PLAN 

ABLE and candid exponents of public opinion in the 
South, even those who were a part of the "Lost 
Cause," are almost unanimous in regarding the 
assassination of President Lincoln as one of the greatest 
calamities that befell their section of the Union.^ Indeed, 
the writer has heard a distinguished editor ascribe to Jefferson 
Davis himself the opinion that next to the failure of the Con- 
federacy the untimely death of Mr. Lincoln was the severest 
blow inflicted on Southern interests.^ Many of the evils ex- 
perienced by their States during the early years of Congres- 
sional reconstruction would have been avoided, they believe, 
under a continuance of the wise and considerate policy of the 
martyr President. While it is true that the confidence which 
he enjoyed among the masses in the loyal States, his unques- 
tionable integrity and his splendid intellectual powers would 
have made him a formidable adversary even in a controversy 
with Congress, yet we have no assurance that these undoubted 
elements of strength would have enabled him, in the confused 
times following the Rebellion, to do more than postpone a con- 
test with the Legislative branch in which a desire to discipline 
the South was even then winning adherents. The passions 
of the hour would have discovered a weakness in his clemency 

'Why the Solid South? p. i. 

*This recollection has been verified by correspondence with Col. A. 
K. McClure, the gentleman referred to.— Author. 
407 



4o8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

to the vanquished, while his very breadth of soul and sense 
would have been regarded by radical members of his party as 
only an evidence of his desire to facilitate the restoration to 
power of red-handed rebels. But it is idle to speculate on 
what might have been the result of his endeavors to heal the 
wounds of war, for, by the assassin's bullet, the execution of 
his policy passed into other hands. 

While the terrible tragedy of April 14 was still unknown to 
a great majority of American citizens, Andrew Johnson was 
quietly installed in the office of President. As every detail 
of the simple ceremony in the Kirkwood Hotel is familiar to 
this generation of readers, that event requires only a passing 
allusion. In the presence of the constitutional advisers of 
his predecessor, except Secretary Seward, who had been dan- 
gerously wounded by one of Booth's accomplices, the oath of 
office was administered by Chief Justice Chase, who, with the 
Attorney-General, had examined the precedents and the law. 
Besides these officials a few members of Congress, who still 
lingered at the capital, were in attendance as witnesses. 

Something of Andrew Johnson's political career has been 
related in the chapter on Tennessee. As military governor 
of that State his high courage, his acknowledged patriotism, 
his honesty of purpose and principle were evident to all. 
Traits of character suspected, but not then fully disclosed, 
were developed by more complex conditions. The problem 
that confronted him may be briefly stated. 

When Mr. Johnson succeeded to the Presidential office 
Confederate armies somewhat broken, indeed, but still capable 
of mischief were retarding the victorious march of Sherman's 
legions. Measures for disbanding the former became neces- 
sary when Southern leaders, recognizing the hopelessness 
of further resistance, made overtures looking to an armis- 
tice which took place and to the surrender that subsequently 
followed. It became necessary to discontinue at once the 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 409 

enlistment of men in the loyal States, and, to economize 
expense, to muster out of service as expeditiously as possible 
the grand army of Union volunteers. The energy and prompt- 
ness with which this task was accomplished were not the least 
of Secretary Stanton's services to the nation. The perfec- 
tion to which years of experience had brought the machinery 
of the War Department enabled the bulk of the Union armies 
to return without delay to their homes, where, discarding the 
character of soldiers, they melted insensibly into the civil 
population and speedily resumed the pursuits of peace. Rela- 
''tions with France were somewhat strained, and, owing to a 
succession of unfriendly acts, a war with Great Britain was 
not improbable. The public finances, too, required attention. 
To provide a revenue adequate to the extraordinary demands 
of the time was beginning to tax the resources of Government. 
A satisfactory settlement of even the least of these might well 
have appeared a serious question. The cessation of hostilities, 
however, presented a problem far transcending the greatest 
of them in importance. 

Many of the late Confederate States were threatened with 
anarchy, for in those commonwealths the recent authority had 
been extinguished and no organizations existed which the 
Administration could recognize as State governments. The 
political reconstruction of four of them, it is true, had been 
commenced under encouragement and direction of the national 
Executive, but even in those much remained to be done. Be- 
fore examining the condition of the insurgent States as a 
whole it may be well, therefore, to summarize the most im- 
portant events that occurred in Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisi- 
ana and Virginia between the institution of loyal governments 
in those commonwealths and the meeting of the Thirty-ninth 
Congress in December, 1865. 

The General Assembly of Arkansas, though lacking its full 
membership, convened in March, 1865, and unanimously 



410 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

adopted on April 14 succeeding the proposed amendment to the 
Federal Constitution. The action of Congress, however, in 
submitting that proposition to the States had been anticipated 
by the Union men of that commonwealth, for their organic 
law had already abolished involuntary servitude; by the same 
instrument they had repudiated all debts created in the conduct 
of the war, thereby complying with three of the principal 
conditions required for restoring their State to the Union. 

During the same session an act passed the Legislature dis- 
franchising all citizens who had aided the Confederate cause 
after the organization, April 18, 1864, of a loyal government. 
By the adversaries of this measure it was claimed that the 
lawmaking body exceeded its powers, because the act in 
effect prescribed qualifications for the suffrage different from 
those required by the State constitution, and, so far as it 
attempted to deprive citizens of their privileges without 
judicial conviction of crime, was contrary to the law of the 
land. This statute awakened the indifferent, and, as the time 
approached for holding Congressional elections, excited con- 
siderable discussion. 

In the mean time the new government silently extended its 
authority over those parts of the State occupied by Southern 
soldiers until the cessation of hostilities. Governor Flanigan 
on retiring suggested that Confederate county officers be con- 
tinued under his successor. This proposal, however, was 
promptly rejected and the secession establishment in all its 
parts completely ignored. Governor Murphy then published 
a proclamation urging the people in those regions hitherto 
dominated by the enemy, which comprised nearly half the 
counties in the State, to assemble and renew their local or- 
ganizations. His address was favorably received, and his ad- 
ministration soon acquiesced in throughout the commonwealth. 
Outrages ceased with the disappearance of Confederate 
soldiers, and by the beginning of July judicial tribunals had 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 411 

been revived in nearly every county. Some of the courts had 
been in session, and most of them were prepared to meet 
regularly for the transaction of business. Taxes were col- 
lected as quietly as before the war, and civil process could be 
executed in every part of the State. Hundreds had returned 
from the South to their former homes and resumed the pur- 
suits of peace. Discontent, so far as any existed in the 
State, was confined to some ex-Confederate officers and to 
a few non-combatants who had sympathized with the re- 
bellion. Both classes advised disregard of the disfranchising 
law, but as a rule the returned soldiers on both sides were 
quiet and orderly. All accounts concur in representing the 
pacification of Arkansas as complete toward the end of sum- 
mer, and by October 13, 1865, the Secretary of State was able 
to report officially that the new government was in success- 
ful operation, the civil organization of every county having 
been effected. Governor Murphy in approving a circular pub- 
lished near the close of the same month by Brigadier General 
Sprague, an assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, 
enjoined both civil officers and citizens to give all possible 
encouragement to the officers and appointees of the bureau.^ 
The President on receiving intelligence of this satisfactory 
condition of affairs sent to Governor Murphy the following 
dispatch : 

There will be no interference with your present organization of State 
government. I have learned from E. W. Gantt, Esq., and other sources, 
that all is working well, and you will proceed and resume the former 
relations with the Federal Government, and all the aid in the power of the 
Government will be given in restoring the State to its former relations.* 

As the time approached for an election of national Repre- 
sentatives, the Governor issued another address in which he 
advised the choice of persons who could take the oath required 

* Ex. Doc. No. 70, H. of R., i Sess. 39th Cong., p. 78. 
'Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 28. 



412 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

by Congress. Three members were elected, namely: Wil- 
liam Ryers, G. H. Kyle and James M. Johnson, who subse- 
quently appeared at Washington and presented their creden- 
tials.i 

The foregoing account of the situation in Arkansas is con- 
firmed by the testimony of General Reynolds, military com- 
mander of the department, who had sent officers into all the 
counties. These reported civil government as everywhere 
reestablished. The State, they asserted, had never enjoyed 
greater tranquillity. There was not a shadow of conflict be- 
tween the civil and the military authority, for the latter in 
sustaining the former was careful not to encroach on any of 
its functions. In short, the restoration of civil law in that 
State was universally admitted. 

In two thirds of the counties, however, great destitution 
prevailed. Early in the summer the General Government felt 
compelled to distribute among indigent f reedmen and refugees 
vast quantities of food, and Northern generosity alone, the 
Governor declared, could prevent great distress during the 
ensuing winter. Nor was his expectation disappointed. It 
is a splendid tribute to the character of Americans that one of 
the most destructive conflicts in history, with all the animosi- 
ties which protracted civil wars engender, did not perceptibly 
impair in them the feelings of humanity. 

The organization of a Union government in Tennessee has 
elsewhere been described. The Assembly chosen under its 
authority met at Nashville on the 2d of April, 1865, and 
three days later ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. On the 
2 1 St the President was requested to proclaim the insurrection 
at an end in that commonwealth, though a few weeks later he 
was called upon for troops to guarantee a republican form of 
government and to protect the State against invasion and 
domestic violence. Besides appointing executive officers the 

* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 28. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 413 

Legislature elected to the United States Senate David T. Pat- 
terson and Joseph S. Fowler. 

The most important measure of the session, however, was 
the enactment on June 5 of a severe law affecting the elective 
francjiise. By it the right to vote was restricted, as formerly, 
to white males who had attained their twenty-first year. To 
the classes excepted by the Proclamation of December 8, 1863, 
were added all those who had left seats in the General Assem- 
bly, all who were absentees from the United States for the 
purpose of aiding the rebellion and all who had fled within 
the Confederate lines with the same intention. These were 
disfranchised for the period of fifteen years from the passage 
of the act.^ 

During this session there was presented by the freedmen 
of the State a petition for the elective franchise. The " col- 
ored citizens of Tennessee," as they styled themselves, re- 
ceived no response to their prayer beyond the approval of 
an order for printing 500 copies of their memorial. The mo- 
tion for this trifling concession was carried by a vote of 41 
to 10. 

On June 12 the Legislature adjourned until the first Mon- 
day in October. On the same day Governor Brownlow or- 
dered an election to be held on August 2 for Representatives 
to Congress in each of the eight districts into which the 
State had just been divided. Vacancies in the General Assem- 
bly were directed to be filled at the same time. 

The disfranchising act, with the oath required thereunder, 
had the effect of excluding a large number, probably three 
fourths, of the citizens from voting. Its adversaries declared 
the law unconstitutional, and it encountered much opposition, 
especially in Middle and West Tennessee. Its constitution- 
ality, however, was sustained by one of the State courts in a 
decision rendered June 29, and the Governor, in a proclama- 
* Acts of the State of Tennessee, 1865, p. 33. 



414 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

tion of July lo succeeding, argued in favor of the statute. 
Those who should unite to defeat its execution would be " de- 
clared in rebellion against the State of Tennessee, and dealt 
with as rebels," It was further signified that votes cast in 
violation of the law would not be taken into account by the 
Secretary of State. 

Nor were these idle threats, for the civil officers were 
instructed " to arrest and bring to justice all persons who, 
under pretence of being candidates for Congress or other 
office, are traveling over the State denouncing and nullifying 
the Constitution and laws of the land, and spreading sedition 
and a spirit of rebellion." ^ 

It was relative to these measures that President Johnson 
on July 20, 1865, sent the following despatch to Governor 
Brownlow : 

I hope and have no doubt you will see that the recent amendments 
to the constitution of the State as adopted by the people, and all the 
laws passed by the last Legislature in pursuance thereof, are fairly 
executed, and that all illegal votes in the approaching election be 
exclude \ from the polls, and the election for members of Congress be 
legally and fairly conducted. When and wherever it becomes necessary 
to employ force for the execution of the laws and the protection of 
the ballot-box from violence and fraud, you are authorized to call 
upon Ma j. -Gen. Thomas for sufficient military force to sustain the 
civil authorities of the State. I have received your recent address to 
the people, and think it well timed, and hope :" will do much good in 
reconciling the opposition to the amendment to the constitution and the 
laws passed by the last Legislature. The law must be executed and the 
civil authority sustained. In your efforts to do this, if necessary, Gen. 
Thomas will afford a sufficient military force. You are at liberty to 
make what use you think proper of this despatch.* 

Though no violence marked the election, considerable 
irregularities, notwithstanding the Governor's precautions, ap- 
pear to have crept into modes of registration, and he felt com- 

* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 779- 
' Ibid. 



I 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 415 

pelled in consequence to reject the ballots of twenty-nine 
counties. In this contest 61,783 citizens participated, but 
when those illegally enrolled were disregarded the number 
was reduced to 39,509. The defective vote, which applied to 
all the candidates, was thrown out in every county, though it 
changed the result in only one district. Of the eight Repre- 
sentatives chosen all were Union men; four, however, were 
conservatives, opposed both to test oaths and measures of 
disfranchisement.^ Governor Brownlow because of his action 
was severely censured, but was supported by a majority of 
the General Assembly. 

In October, when the Legislature reassembled, a bill to 
render persons of African and of Indian descent competent 
witnesses in the State courts passed the Senate by the close 
vote of 10 to 9, but failed altogether to receive the approval 
of the House. The Representatives of his State declined at 
that time, by a vote of 35 to 25, to pass a simple resolution 
endorsing the Administration of President Johnson, but al- 
most unanimously adopted in place of that proposition the 
following : 

Resolved, That we endorse the administration of his Excellency the 
President of the United States, and especially his declaration that treason 
shall be made odious, and traitors punished.' 

A colored convention representing the freedmen of the 
State was held at the capital during the week succeeding the 
election. If the Legislature did not grant before December i, 
1865, their petition for the elective franchise, this body re- 

*This election resulted in the choice of Nathaniel G. Taylor, Horace 
Maynard, Edmund Cooper, Isaac R. Hawkins, John W. Leftwich, William 
B. Stokes, William B. Campbell and Dorsey B. Thomas. The last named, 
however, was affected by the Governor's recount, and Daniel W. Arnell, 
who was declared the successful candidate, was admitted to Congress 
with the other Tennessee Representatives on the 24th of July, l866. See 
Why the Solid South? pp. 182-183. 

• Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 780. 



4i6 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

solved to protest against the admission of the Tennessee dele- 
gation to Congress. On the question of negro suffrage the 
Governor in his October message said : 

I think it would be bad policy, as well as wrong in principle, to open 
the ballot-box to the uninformed and exceedingly stupid slaves of the 
Southern cotton, rice, and sugar fields. If allowed to vote, the great 
majority of them would be influenced by leading secessionists to vote 
against the Government, as they would be largely under the influence of 
this class of men for years to come, having to reside on and cultivate 
their lands. When the people of Tennessee become satisfied that the 
negro is worthy of suffrage, they will extend it, and not before; and I 
repeat that this question must be regulated by the State authorities and by 
the loyal voters of the State, not by the General Government.^ 

Apprehending trouble from the antagonism of races Mr. 
Brownlow advocated the old idea of colonization for the 
black man. He believed, however, that negroes should be ad- 
mitted to testify in the courts and argued in favor of con- 
ferring such a privilege. Repugnance to their testimony, he 
declared, was due principally to education and habit. 

If the following account from The Knoxville Whig of 
September 27 is trustworthy the freedmen of Tennessee had 
but a slender claim to the right to vote. That journal said : 

Thousands of free colored persons are congregating in and around the 
large towns in Tennessee, and thousands are coming in from other 
States, one third of whom cannot get employment. Indeed, less than 
one third of them want employment, or feel willing to stoop to work. 
They entertain the erroneous idea that the Government is bound to 
supply all their wants, and even to furnish them with houses, if, in 
order to do that, the white occupants must be turned out. There is a 
large demand for labor in every section of the State, but the colored 
people, with here and there a noble exception, scorn the idea of work. 
They fiddle and dance at night, and lie around the stores and street 
corners in the day time.* 

The Governor's message, sent in at this session, was hope- 
ful in tone. He favored some amendment but not a repeal 

* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 781. 
•Ibid. 



I 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 417 

of the franchise law. He advised also a " full pardon to the 
masses — the young and the deluded, who followed blindly 
the standard of revolt, provided they act as becomes their cir- 
cumstances." The unrepentant, however, should suffer the 
period of disfranchisement; while the active leaders, he be- 
lieved, were entitled " neither to mercy nor forbearance." To 
some negroes he would give the right of suffrage, but, believ- 
ing it unsafe, he was opposed to conferring it on them all. 

Tennessee, over which advancing and retreating armies had 
repeatedly passed, suffered even more severely than Arkansas, 
for besides having been the principal theatre of operations for 
the contending hosts in the West, her territory had also been 
in the early rule of Governor Johnson the scene of local 
strife. Old family feuds that for various reasons had been 
allowed to slumber were in many instances revived, and the 
most lawless outrages perpetrated in the face of day. These 
disorders, however, had practically ceased toward the con- 
clusion of his governorship, and peace reigned once more 
within the borders of that community. The existence there 
of a considerable demand for labor assisted greatly in dimin- 
ishing the burden of the authorities. 

The closing months of the war found the loyal government 
of Louisiana endeavoring with the influence of the Union 
army to extend its jurisdiction over all the territory that had 
been brought under Federal control. Notwithstanding its 
contracted area this commonwealth for certain purposes was 
treated as a restored member of the Union. Like the Northern 
States it was affected by the draft which, on February 15, took 
place in some districts included in the Department of the 
Gulf. But the great struggle that for four years had em- 
ployed the attention and tested the resources of the Govern- 
ment soon reached its close, thus rendering unnecessary any 
field service from the recruits then obtained. 

Though the attitude of Congress toward the Banks gov- 



41 8 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ernment has been described in the preceding pages, that was 
not beUeved the proper place to examine the nature of the 
election which was held on September 5, or the personnel 
of the Legislature chosen on that occasion. In connection 
with the appointment by that assembly of Messrs. Smith and 
Cutler as United States Senators the subject was noticed in- 
cidentally. The action of Congress on the question of admit- 
ting members from Louisiana was, however, fully entered 
into in that relation. 

Some additional information affecting the validity of that 
election is afforded by a proclamation published May 13, 1865, 
by the acting Governor, J. Madison Wells. ^ This document as- 
serts that the Register of Voters for the city of New Orleans 
declared officially that there had been enrolled 5,000 persons 
who did not possess the legal qualifications for electors. To 
ascertain the political people, therefore, a new registration was 
thought desirable. Mr. Wells accordingly declared the old 
records closed from the date of his proclamation. The certifi- 
cates granted thereon, as well as the enrollment, were pro- 
nounced null and void. He then authorized the opening on 
June I, 1865, of a new set of books, the enrollment to be made 
in accordance with the qualifications prescribed by the consti- 
tution and laws of Louisiana. The old registration having 
been made under an order of General Banks this announce- 
ment led at once tp a difference between the Department Com- 
mander and the acting Governor. Many names recorded on 
the old books were alleged to have been those of colored men, 
and a circumstance presently to be related tends to support 
the assertion. 

About that time the Confederate Governor, Allen, trans- 
ferred to Federal officials all the important military records 

^ Having been elected United States Senator, Mr. Hahn resigned the 
governorship on the 4th of March and was succeeded in office by Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Wells. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 419 

in his possession, and from his capital at Shreveport pub- 
Hshed a communication in which he announced his administra- 
tion closed on that day. He said in part : " The war is over, 
the contest is ended, the soldiers are disbanded and gone 
home, and now there is in Louisiana no opposition whatever 
to the Constitution and laws of the United States." ^ 

On June 10 an address to the people of thirty-five parishes 
was issued by the new Governor, who congratulated them on 
their return to the protection of the national flag. It was 
not with the past, he reminded them, but with the present and 
the future that their welfare was bound up. They were ex- 
horted to go manfully to work and reestablish civil govern- 
ment. The submission to law and the prompt acquiescence 
of those recently hostile to the United States he regarded 
as a hopeful sign. Even the soldiers, he said, returned to 
their homes better and wiser men, promising by a cheerful 
obedience to law to atone for past errors. All citizens were 
urged to imitate their example. Provisional appointments 
to county offices would be made until they could be filled by 
election. In naming persons for such places the Governor 
promised to be guided by the recommendation of the people 
if they selected men of good reputation who had taken the 
amnesty oath, which would be a prerequisite in every case. If 
the people did not act promptly he would feel compelled to 
make appointments upon the best information obtainable. If 
errors were made, then citizens would be themselves to blame 
for neglecting promptly to suggest the proper persons. A 
provisional judiciary would also be constituted. 

Important elections, he announced, would take place in 
the autumn, when Representatives to Congress and members 
of a Legislature would be chosen. If each parish was pro- 
vided with the proper officers to open the polls an election 
for governor and other State officers would take place at the 
* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 510. 



420 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

same time. The people addressed were informed that in 
making the new constitution its framers did not intend to 
deprive them of their rights. The response to this appeal 
was a local reorganization in nearly all the parishes affected. 

Governor Wells, on September 21, in a second order ap- 
pointed the 6th of November succeeding as the day for hold- 
ing the election, and also defined the qualifications of voters. 
White male citizens of the United States who had attained the 
age of twenty-one years and had resided twelve months in 
the commonwealth were declared entitled to exercise the 
suffrage. Evidence was also required of every elector that 
he had taken the oath of amnesty contained in the proclama- 
tion of December 8, 1863, or that prescribed, May 29, 1865, 
by Mr. Johnson. The excepted classes could vote only upon 
receiving a special pardon from the President. In other 
respects the election would be conducted in accordance with 
the constitution of 1852. 

By a Democratic convention, held October 2 in New Or- 
leans, at which twenty-one parishes were unrepresented, Mr. 
Wells was unanimously nominated for Governor. The pre- 
amble to a body of resolutions adopted on that occasion asserts 
that the issue which for four years had tried the strength of 
the Government had been made openly and manfully; that 
the decision having been adverse they now came forward in 
the same spirit of frankness and honor to support the Federal 
Government under the Constitution. 

The " National Democratic " party they believed to be the 
only agency by which radicalism, to which they imputed a 
tendency toward consolidation, could be successfully encoun- 
tered, and through which the General Government could be 
restored to its pristine purity. On the subject of reorganiza- 
tion they endorsed President Johnson's policy, which, it was 
alleged, preserved unimpaired the rights of the States and 
maintained their equality in the Union. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 421 

Noticing a question already assuming importance, they 
declared that, in accordance with the constant adjudication 
of the Federal Supreme Court, persons of African descent 
could not be regarded as citizens of the United States; that 
under no circumstances could there exist any equality between 
the white and other races; that as the national Government 
was instituted by, so it was designed to be perpetuated for 
the exclusive benefit of, white men. For the time they were 
content with this oblique reference to the subject of negro 
suffrage. Another resolution advised the calling of a con- 
vention to frame a constitution for the State, that of 1864 
being characterized as the creation of fraud, violence and cor- 
ruption. 

This convention, which admitted the effectual abolition of 
slavery in the South, assumed that those who had sustained 
loss by the policy of emancipation could rightfully petition 
Congress for compensation. The repeal was also advocated 
of those statutes and ordinances not in harmony with the 
Federal Constitution. Believing it consonant with " the chiv- 
alrous magnanimity" of President Johnson the convention 
earnestly appealed for an early general amnesty and a prompt 
restitution of property. 

Almost a month preceding the meeting of this convention 
an address was circulated by the " National Conservative 
Union " party, whose representatives assembled one week 
later than the Democratic delegates. Its members opposed 
both an extension of suffrage to negroes and the calling of 
a new constitutional convention. Like the Democratic dele- 
gates they endorsed the reconstruction policy of the Presi- 
dent. They approved the attitude of their conservative North- 
ern friends who opposed radicalism and an elevation of the 
freedmen to political equality with whites. The doctrine of 
secession was repudiated, and to the payment of all obliga- 
tions created in carrying on the war they declared themselves 



422 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

inflexibly opposed. They, too, favored the speedy passage 
of an act of general amnesty as well as a repeal of the con- 
fiscation law. 

Governor Wells was also the choice of this convention. He 
accepted both nominations and perceived no inconsistency in 
doing so, never, he asserted, having been a strict party man. 
Mr. Wells, who had formerly been a Red River planter, 
proved his loyalty to the Federal Government by coming 
within the Union lines as soon as they were established, and 
bringing with him his slaves, thereby endangering somewhat 
his ownership. 

Though he had not yet returned to his home, the friends 
of Henry Watkins Allen, the late Confederate executive, 
named him as their candidate for governor. 

In the election, which was held at the appointed time, the 
entire vote polled was 27,808, of which Governor Wells re- 
ceived 23,312, and ex-Governor Allen, 5,497. In every county 
except one the Democratic ticket for members of the Legis- 
lature was successful. 

Perhaps the most instructive incident of this contest was 
the part played by those known as " Radical " Republicans. 
These held a mass-meeting in the city of New Orleans on 
November 13 at which were adopted resolutions claiming the 
election to Congress of Henry C. Warmoth as territorial 
Delegate. When he subsequently appeared in Washington 
his case was brought to the attention of the House by Thad- 
deus Stevens, who offered, December 20, 1865, what pur- 
ported to be a certificate of Warmoth's election as Delegate 
from the " Territory of Louisiana." On request of the 
Pennsylvania leader this document was referred to the Joint 
Committee on Reconstruction. ^ 

This extreme element, which assumed to regard Louisiana 
as a Territory, polled 19,000 votes, most of which were alleged 
* Globe, Part I., i Sess. 39th Cong., p. loi. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 423 

to have been cast by colored men. It declared the State or- 
ganization repugnant to the Federal Constitution both in law 
and effect. The President, it was asserted, could not restore 
Louisiana by proclamation, for reinstatement could be ac- 
complished in a constitutional manner only by petitioning 
Congress for admission whenever a majority of the people 
deemed such a course expedient, and the temper of the whites, 
nine tenths of whom were disloyal, rendered it inadvisable 
at that time to take such a step. The meeting rejoiced that 
the Republican party in the North had triumphed in the 
recent elections, for these victories pointed to ultimate suc- 
cess. The premature admission of Louisiana Congressmen, 
by placing the Union people under rebel rule, would be dis- 
astrous. However, as loyal citizens they would confine them- 
selves to peaceable means of redress. 

Warmoth appears shortly before the end of the war to have 
gone into Louisiana with the Union army, in which he is 
said by one authority to have acquired the reputation of a 
brave soldier and by another to have merited dismissal from 
its ranks.^ By organizing the freedmen and insisting upon 
their political rights he won their confidence; his shrewdness 
and engaging address retained their gratitude. In this elec- 
tion his adherents not only sought to determine the Federal re- 
lations of Louisiana, but also conferred upon negroes the priv- 
ilege of voting, for there was then no law of either the Gen- 
eral or State government investing them with any such right. 

The Legislature, which was convoked in special session, 
assembled at New Orleans on the 23d of November. The 
Governor's message on that occasion related chiefly to such 
local objects as required the attention of the lawmaking body. 
By recommending an election of United States Senators Mr. 
Wells repudiated the action of the General Assembly, which, 

'Three Decades of Federal Legislation, p. 429; also Why the Solid 
South? p. 397. 



424 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

at the preceding session, had appointed Messrs. Smith and 
Cutler to represent the State. Acting upon the Governor's 
suggestion, the latter was again chosen, with Hahn for his 
colleague. These appointments were intended to fill vacancies 
caused by the withdrawal, February 5, 1861, of John Slidell 
and Judah P. Benjamin. 

One of the first acts of the lower House was the selection 
of a committee to consider a resolution which provided for 
assembling a convention to draft a State constitution. For 
reasons already assigned the majority report of this com- 
mittee recommended the calling of a convention and coun- 
selled the Governor to order an election in which the question 
could be voted on by the people. The minority recognized the 
constitution of 1864 ^s binding, and on the ground of public 
economy preferred its amendment, especially as it had already 
acted favorably on the abolition of slavery. The adoption of 
the Thirteenth Amendment and the repeal of the ordinance 
of secession were mentioned by them as conditions essential 
to the recognition of Louisiana as a State and as indis- 
pensable to a restoration of all the privileges which that con- 
dition implied. 

As early as February 17 preceding the Legislature estab- 
lished under the constitution of 1864 had ratified the Thir- 
teenth Article amending the Constitution. By a vote of two 
to one the Assembly again approved that action. The session 
came to an end on the 226. of December. 

This commonwealth, a veritable Eden when the strife 
began, had been sadly changed in its progress. A generous 
Government, indeed, by repairing the levees protected her 
fairest parishes from inundation. The same beneficent au- 
thority maintained many public institutions of charity that 
must else have ceased their noble work. Distress and want 
had already invaded that once prosperous community, and in 
the city of New Orleans alone 16,000 persons were dependent 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 425 

upon and maintained by Federal bounty. Silence reigned in 
the great cotton market of the world. The wreck of her 
public finances has elsewhere been described. Her opulent 
commerce had been destroyed, agriculture everywhere lan- 
guished. Plantations that but lately teemed with rich har- 
vests showed the effects of interrupted cultivation, and the 
mighty river that had annually poured into her metropoHs 
the productions of a dozen States now flowed untroubled to 
the Gulf. 

To show the attitude of Congress toward the Alexandria 
government events in Virginia have in part been anticipated. 
The Legislature of the loyal portion of that Commonwealth 
was composed of members from only ten counties and parts 
of other counties. It was by delegates from this restricted 
area that the constitution of 1864 was framed and adopted. 

By this instrument the elective franchise was confined to 
male whites that had attained the age of twenty-one years, 
who had resided twelve months in the State and were willing 
to swear support of the Federal Constitution and the restored 
government; but officials and voters were required in addi- 
tion to make oath, or affirmation, that they had not, since 
January i, 1864, voluntarily given aid or assistance to those 
in rebellion against the General Government. The Assembly, 
however, was empowered, when it was deemed safe to do 
so, to restore to citizenship all who would be disfranchised 
by this provision of the organic law. 

Involuntary servitude was also abolished. While great 
numbers of negroes were thus set at liberty, nothing was 
then done to elevate them to the dignity of citizens. The 
question of making them voters was, of course, still more re- 
mote. 

The General Assembly was prohibited from making pro- 
vision for the payment of any debt or obligation created in 
the name of the Commonwealth by the pretended State au- 



426 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

thorities at Riclimond; and it was also forbidden to permit any 
county, city or corporation to levy or collect taxes for the 
discharge of any debt incurred for the purpose of aiding any 
rebellion against the State or the United States, or to pro- 
vide for the payment of any bonds held by rebels in arms.^ 

The Confederate capital, long deemed impregnable, fell 
on the 26. of April. Within a week came tidings of the 
surrender of Lee's entire army, greatly reduced in numbers, 
it is true, but hitherto the main reliance of the Confederacy. 
Mr. Lincoln, apparently, was not altogether without expecta- 
tion of some such fortunate outcome of the extensive prepara- 
tions that had been made for ensuring the success of the final 
campaign, and on the following day, April 10, 1865, he sent 
from Washington to the executive head of the restored State 
this telegram : 

Governor Pierpont, Alexandria, Virginia: 
Please come up and see me at once.* 

A. Lincoln. 

Mr. Pierpont, as the writer has been credibly informed, 
called by request on President Lincoln during the week of 
his assassination, evidently in response to this telegram, when 
they spent three hours together in conversation. No third 
party appears to have been present at their consultation. The 
topic discussed it is not difficult to imagine. Shortly before 
his death, which occurred in March, 1899, Governor Pier- 
pont informed his daughter that he never believed Andrew 
Johnson carried out Mr. Lincoln's idea in the reconstruction 
of Virginia.^ That policy, however, had not then, April 10, 
assumed definitive form in the mind of the President him- 
self, for he expressly stated to Mr. Pierpont that he had no 
plan for reorganization, but must be guided by events. His 

^ Poore's Charters and Constitutions, Vol. II. p. 1938 et seq. 
* Letters and State Papers of Lincoln, Vol. II. p. 670. 
•Letter of Mrs. Anna Pierpont Siviter to the author. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 427 

last public utterance establishes the correctness of this state- 
ment. 

Four weeks later President Johnson by executive order 
recognized the Alexandria establishment, and toward the 
close of the same month, May 26, 1865, Mr. Pierpont, with 
other members of his government, arrived in Richmond. 
The sneer of Thaddeus Stevens that the archives and prop- 
erty of loyal Virginia were conveyed to the new capital in 
an ambulance affords at least an adequate idea of the feeble 
condition of the restored State. But notwithstanding the 
absence of all pomp and his lack of the usual emblems of 
authority the Governor, we are told, was received in a very 
flattering manner. 

Virginia, which emerged from the struggle crippled by the 
loss of an important part of her domain, suffered more in 
the destruction of the elements of wealth than any of her 
errant sisters, and though entering somewhat reluctantly on 
a career of rebellion, she was the only member of the Con- 
federacy that was permanently weakened. Industry could 
never repair the alienation of her territory. While it may 
appear that the General Government acted harshly toward 
a State to which the Union owed so much, the preceding 
pages show clearly that the loss of her trans-Alleghany coun- 
ties was due chiefly to an unwise administration of her in- 
ternal affairs. Notwithstanding the statement of Mr. Blaine, 
the writer does not think that Virginia was singled out for 
punishment. But even apart from her dismemberment the 
ravages of war fell most heavily on the Old Dominion. 
There it was that the Army of the Potomac and the Army 
of Northern Virginia contended longest for supremacy. 
Troops in their marches and countermarches foraged liber- 
ally on her people, sometimes without distinction of friend 
or foe. Concrete illustrations will occur to every reader ac- 
quainted with the military history of the great conflict. 



428 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The devastation of the Shenandoah valley was only a strik- 
ing example of what was constantly occurring within more 
restricted areas of the State. Barns and dwelling houses, 
fences and crops perished in the universal destruction. Cattle 
were either killed or carried off, and even the implements of 
husbandry were frequently devoted to the flames. The in- 
jury thus sustained by agricultural interests was followed in 
many districts by an alarming scarcity of food during the 
ensuing years, and to escape starvation numbers of her citizens 
fled from once happy homes. Newspaper correspondents in 
their progress through the State describe scenes of wretched- 
ness and distress. In exploring for their journals wide regions 
that had recently been the theatre of war they witnessed 
spectacles of want, hunger and despair. Uncultivated tracts 
in the wake of the armies contributed to heighten the picture 
of desolation. Richmond, the centre of so many interesting 
historical associations, though long exempt from pillage, 
perished ultimately in a conflagration. In short, nearly every 
landmark of prosperity was effaced by the calamities of war. 
To repair these ravages, to repeople these solitudes, to 
revive commerce and agriculture, to restore tranquillity and 
maintain order was the stupendous task before Governor Pier- 
pont, in whose public career it may be regarded as the second 
stage. After the formation of West Virginia, in which he 
had acted a conspicuous and honorable part, and one that 
can scarcely be overrated, his exertions barely sufficed to pre- 
serve the continuity of a loyal government in his native State. 
In the former undertaking he had the cooperation of nearly 
every person of consideration beyond the Alleghanies. His 
efforts in Richmond, however, received but indifferent sup- 
port. Whites of little influence and negroes who were still 
but prospective citizens made up the greater number of his 
adherents. A handful of secessionists, it is true, set the ex- 
ample of obedience to the laws, though they found among 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 429 

their late associates but few imitators. It was from such ma- 
terial and in such circumstances that Mr. Pierpont was to 
reconstruct the grand old Commonwealth. The Governor, 
however, applied himself at once to the duties imposed by his 
office. He appointed persons to reorganize the various counties 
by holding elections for local officers, though in numerous 
instances he merely authorized to act for the preservation of 
peace those citizens whom the military officers might select. 
The difficulties of the situation were such that he summoned 
the Legislature to meet in special session at Richmond on the 
20th of June. 

In response to this request the lawmaking body assembled 
at the appointed time. The Executive message on that oc- 
casion related concisely what had been done by the restored 
government subsequent to June, 1861. It also stated that 
since his arrival at the capital the Governor had conversed 
with intelligent men of every shade of political opinion and 
representing every part of Virginia. He was convinced, he 
said, that if the test of loyalty prescribed by their constitu- 
tion was enforced in the election and qualification of officers, 
it would render organization impracticable in most of the 
counties. It was folly to suppose that a State could be ad- 
ministered " under a republican form of government where in 
a large portion of the State, nineteen twentieths of the people 
are disfranchised and cannot hold office. But, fortunately, 
by the terms of the constitution, the General Assembly has 
control of this subject. The restricting clauses of the con- 
stitution were devised in time of war. . . . Men accept 
the facts developed by the logic of the past four years, de- 
clare that they have taken the oath of allegiance to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States without mental reservation, and 
intend to be, and remain, loyal to the Government of their 
fathers. It would not be in accordance with the spirit of that 
noble Anglo-Saxon race, from which we boast our common 



430 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

origin, to strike a fallen brother, or impose upon him humili- 
ating terms after a fair surrender." ^ 

For the oath required by the State constitution he sug- 
gested the substitution of that prescribed by the President, or 
one of similar character; he also recommended the passage 
of an act to legalize marriage between persons of color, and 
the appointment of a day for holding elections of Representa- 
tives to Congress and for members of the Legislature in those 
counties where none had been chosen. 

The subject of disfranchisement was immediately taken up 
in both Houses, and the result of their action was to allow 
the suffrage to those who, upon taking the amnesty oath, had 
not held office under the Confederacy or its State govern- 
ments. Those who had done so could neither vote nor hold 
office. The Legislature submitted to the people, to be de- 
termined at the election in October succeeding, the question 
of removing this restriction upon officeholders. 

This action of the Assembly was followed by the appear- 
ance of a large number of competitors for office, and con- 
siderable interest was awakened. Finding, however, that 
they would be unable to take the oath required by Congress 
many of the candidates for the national Legislature withdrew. 
The President was asked by some citizens of Albemarle 
County whether, in his opinion, Congress would probably 
insist upon the oath. The following reply to their inquiry 
was made by Attorney-General Speed : 

The President has referred to me your letter, dated Charlottesville, 
Virginia, September, 1865, and I am instructed by him to say that he 
has no more means of knowing what Congress may do in regard to the 
oath about which you inquire than any other citizen. It is his earnest 
wish that loyal and true men, to whom no objections can be made, should 
be elected to Congress. 

This is not an official letter, but a simple expression of individual 
opinion and wish.* 

' Ann. Cycl, 1865, p. 817. ' Ibid. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 431 

The election was held on October 12, the vote polled being 
the smallest ever given in the history of the State. In the 
first eight Congressional districts, however, it exceeded 
40,000. The constitutional amendment met with very little 
opposition, many counties voting unanimously to remove the 
restriction upon the suffrage.^ The Assembly then chosen 
convened at Richmond on December 4, 1865, the time fixed 
for the meeting of Congress. 

While it is true that there were grounds for apprehension 
regarding the stability of the new governments instituted in 
these four States, the principal cause of anxiety to the Ad- 
ministration was the disorganized political and social condi- 
tion of the remaining members of the late Confederacy. It 
was universally agreed that with the destruction of its mili- 
tary power the authority of that government was completely 
extinguished. From that moment until the revival within 
them of Federal laws these commonwealths were destitute of 
all legislation of a general character. Under our dual prin- 
ciple of government, however, this could be endured tem4^G- 
rarily. But the absence of a central organism would soon be 
evident in the reappearance of those alarming symptoms which 
marked American political and industrial life in the critical 
period between the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, and the in- 
auguration, nearly six years later, of the present national sys- 
tem. In that unhappy interval, however, the authority of the 
various States was ample for the regulation of domestic affairs, 
while in the deranged and confused times succeeding the Re- 
bellion seven entire commonwealths were left without any 
general or any particular government. Their territory, in- 
deed, had passed under control of the Union forces, for when 
the Administration of Jefferson Davis was overthrown the 
disloyal State establishments, of which it was only an ema- 
nation, fell likewise. Though internal progress was not seri- 
' Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 817. 



432 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

ously to be expected in this situation, tolerable order was pre- 
served by Federal soldiers, who occupied the entire region 
between the Potomac and the Rio Grande, for even in those 
States reorganized under Executive auspices civil authority 
' was not yet established on a foundation sufficiently secure to 
maintain itself without assistance from the military power 
of the nation. 

Besides the absence of all civil government there were other 
elements of discord that tended to increase the confusion in 
these States. Their population, it need scarcely be observed, 
was not homogeneous. The decree of emancipation together 
with the incidents of war had brought freedom to almost 
the entire slave population of the South. This was soon to be 
confirmed by the proposed constitutional amendment, which 
was designed both to place beyond question the status of f reed- 
men and to strike the shackles from the limbs of the last 
bondman in the loyal as well as in the disloyal States. About 
the middle of December nearly 4,000,000 negroes bereft of 
the hand that bestowed their daily sustenance found them- 
selves suddenly dependent for support upon their own exer- 
tions. The General Government, it is true, by creating the 
Bureau of Freedmen and Refugees, diminished considerably 
the danger from this source, though this relief by no means 
solved the problem of transforming the recent slave into a 
useful member of society; besides, the bureau itself subse- 
quently degenerated into a fruitful source of abuse. 

Nor were Southern whites by any means unanimous as to 
the best policy to adopt in the circumstances in which an un- 
successful rebellion had placed them. Between Union men 
and secessionists there existed a feeling of extreme bitterness. 
Even among members of the latter class there was consider- 
able difference of opinion, as in North Carolina, where the 
former Whigs, by the moderation of their views as much as 
by constantly agitating the question of reconstruction, had 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 433 

somewhat embarrassed the Richmond authorities while war 
was still flagrant. Add to these causes of disorder the discon- 
tent of thousands of disbanded soldiers who returned in the 
gloom of defeat not infrequently to ruined homes and wasted 
fields. Then, too, there was the disappointment and humilia- 
tion naturally felt by a brave and impulsive people who had 
fought gallantly in support of a cause condemned, indeed, by 
the civilized world, but believed by them to be not only just 
but indispensable to their prosperity and happiness. 

Though a volume could be profitably employed in describ- 
ing, town by town and county by county, the extent of destruc- 
tion inflicted on the South, a few brief paragraphs must suffice 
to suggest an imperfect idea of the enormous loss of wealth 
sustained by that section. The wreck of four members of 
the Confederacy has been noticed in the preceding pages. That 
rapid sketch, however, took no account of the damage to in- 
dividuals by the liberation of their slaves, for, except in those 
instances where negroes left the commonwealth, that was 
not in any sense a loss to the State. If it were, a community, 
by reducing to servitude a part of its inhabitants, could at 
any time increase the amount of its capital. It is only from 
the slaveholder's point of view, therefore, that emancipation 
can be regarded as a pecuniary loss. Immense damage was 
sustained by both North and South in the withdrawal of mil- 
lions of men from the various fields of production. The energy 
of these multitudes, which was rapidly making the United 
States the most opulent and powerful nation on the globe, 
had exerted itself for four years in the destruction of former 
accumulations. 

Almost at the moment that the star of the Confederacy had 
begun to decline the imperial State of Georgia, hitherto ex- 
empt from punishment, was wasted by fire and sword. Some- 
times the Southern, sometimes the Northern army stripped the 
country of everything capable of supporting life. Crops had 



434 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

been harvested, indeed, but this served only to facihtate their 
destruction. In the retreat of Johnston and the advance of 
Sherman toward Atlanta highways had been injured, bridges 
burned and many lines of railroad completely destroyed. 
Dwellings, when they interfered with military operations, 
were levelled by even the Confederate army, and the Union 
forces could not be expected to show greater consideration 
for the property of public enemies. General Hood not only 
wasted the vast stores accumulated in Atlanta but bu-rned 
habitations when they stood in the way of his fortifications. 
Though winter was rapidly approaching, the Federal com- 
mander deemed it necessary after the capture of that strong- 
hold to expel from their abodes a considerable part of its 
population. A brief truce, it is true, enabled the miserable 
inhabitants to remove a part of their effects farther south; 
thousands, outcasts from their ruined homes, were thus driven 
to wander among strangers whose bounty had already been 
taxed by earlier fugitives; both classes were dependent for 
their maintenance on the precarious charity of an impover- 
ished people. Crowded dwellings forced great numbers in the 
inclement weather to seek shelter in the neighboring forests, 
where they found a safe refuge, indeed, but a scanty subsist- 
ence. Over the region traversed by Sherman and Johnston 
the forces of Hood soon after traced a devastating march 
northward to Dalton. The mischiefs of the great march to 
Savannah have frequently been described. Its beginning was 
announced by the blaze of burning buildings, and when the 
last of the Federal soldiers had set their faces toward the 
sea the city of Atlanta was little more than a mass of smok- 
ing ruins. Though the region traversed was probably the 
richest in the State, extensive misery accompanied the prog- 
ress of the army. The meat and the vegetables needed for 
his command were taken by the Union General. Horses, 
mules and wagons were freely appropriated; slaves also were 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 435 

assisted to escape from their masters. Mills and cotton-gins 
were frequently devoted to the flames. In Milledgeville 
factories, storehouses and public buildings were destroyed. 
The principal edifices of Macon perished about the same time. 
Indeed, Augusta was the only considerable place in the State 
that escaped serious harm. The people in northwestern 
Georgia were in the utmost destitution, large families being 
frequently for whole days without food ; venerable persons of 
both sexes, sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, 
often walked fifteen and even twenty miles to procure food 
enough to prevent starvation. The injury to all the usual 
means of transportation greatly increased the difficulty of 
bringing relief. When the conflict had ended, however. 
Federal officers did what they could to alleviate the almost 
universal distress, and their magnanimity was not without 
influence on the future conduct of many an ex-Confederate 
veteran. 

South Carolina, the fatal State that woke the sword of 
war, did not suffer greatly in the earlier stages of the con- 
flict, though even then her foreign commerce was extinguished 
and her agriculture interrupted along the coast. Before its 
close, however, she was destined to experience most of its 
horrors. A restless generation of agitators had assiduously 
inculcated the notion that the South was ruthlessly oppressed 
by Yankee avarice. This teaching bore fruit, and the people 
of South Carolina, coming to regard themselves as little 
better than tributary slaves, were easily persuaded to resort 
to the wager of battle. With the progress of the contest 
this proud State was growing weaker within, hostile pressure 
was constantly increasing from without. Time at length and 
the fortunes of war had brought round their revenge, and 
when the veterans of Sherman turned northward from Sa- 
vannah the Palmetto State was powerless to prevent, or seri- 
ously to retard, their advance. Transportation was greatly 



436 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

embarrassed by the destruction of the bridges as well as the 
tracks of almost every important railway within the State. 
Immense quantities of cotton and numbers of cotton ware- 
houses, uncounted dwellings and depots, machine shops and 
foundries, as well as several sailing vessels and steamboats 
were consumed by flames. Besides these blackened memorial's 
of disaster and defeat, the stately cities of Charleston and 
Columbia were almost simultaneously laid in ruins by great 
conflagrations. The inability of the civil authorities to fur- 
nish food for his army constrained General Sherman to forage 
for supplies. In this manner all the cattle, hogs, sheep and 
poultry, even the little stores of meal, treasured as the last 
barrier against want, were consumed, and the people left en- 
tirely without subsistence. To prevent general starvation the 
Confederate commander was compelled to distribute the 
rations of his soldiers among the wretched inhabitants. From 
various causes many ancient and wealthy families found them- 
selves suddenly reduced to a condition of beggary, and so 
low was the condition of the public treasury that the Legisla- 
ture as early as the mid-summer of 1865 had already begun 
seriously to discuss the question of repudiation. 

With some slight alterations this picture of South Caro- 
lina's ills will serve for that of her northern and more de- 
serving sister, so far at least as concerns those parts overrun 
by the contending hosts. The cessation of hostilities stopped 
the carnival of death and silenced the engines of destruction 
before half of North Carolina's territory had been crossed. 
From the first years of the war there were numerous instances 
of privation among the loyalists of that State. Toward its 
close the more favored classes also began to feel the pressure 
of want. The negroes required and received assistance from 
the Freedmen's Bureau. The whites, refugees as well as se- 
cessionists, were aided by the commanders of the rival forces. 

Florida, fortunately for her people, was so remote from 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 437 

the principal scenes of war that she felt few of its evils. 
Battles, it is true, occurred within the State, but they were as 
skirmishes compared to the bloody engagements which took 
place elsewhere. The same observations are substantially true 
of Texas. A fringe of Mississippi's territory, too, had been 
swept by the furnace-blast of war. The extensive movements 
around Corinth, luka, Vicksburg, Jackson and Port Hudson 
will suggest the extent of destruction that visited the northern 
half of that State. There existed considerable privation in 
that section, though no general distress as in other members 
of the Confederacy. 

All the Gulf States, however, were not equally fortunate. 
Though long impending, the fate of Alabama came swiftly. 
Almost in the same hour she was invaded from the north and 
menaced from the south. A large portion of her material 
resources was already exhausted when the cavalry raids of 
General Wilson spread terror and devastation through the 
interior counties. The city of Selma was laid in ashes; smaller 
towns and villages were likewise consumed by flames ; schools 
and colleges, private buildings and public edifices perished in 
the universal wreck. Monuments of ruin were everywhere 
conspicuous throughout a region the most productive, prob- 
ably, in all the South. Silence and desolation reigned where 
but lately stood proud and hospitable mansions. Nor was 
the destruction of wealth or its elements the only injury 
sustained, for industry would soon repair the losses of capi- 
tal. Labor itself had been severely crippled. Of the army 
of 122,000 soldiers which Alabama furnished to the cause 
of secession 35,000, it was estimated, had been left on the 
field of battle, and at least an equal number had been disabled 
for life. Mobile, enriched by the cotton trade, was silent as 
some ancient necropolis. Her splendid commerce was ruined; 
her stately ships were gone, and the wave broke unheeded on 
the shores of her deserted harbor. 



438 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

This hurried summary conveys only a very inadequate 
notion of the complex problem which Mr. Johnson was forced 
to consider. His arduous duty was to repair the ravages of 
military violence, to evoke order from the discord of civil 
strife, to heal the wounds which the imperious power of sla- 
very had inflicted upon industries and institutions; in a word, 
to restore the harmony of that Republic founded by the wis- 
dom of Washington and preserved by the policy of Lincoln. 
The sentiments of the Chief Magistrate who was about to 
attempt this difficult but indispensable task it is now time to 
consider. His deliberate conclusions and his spontaneous ut- 
terances are best examined, it is believed, in something like 
chronological order. 

On June 9, 1864, almost a year before his accession to 
the Presidency, he had said in addressing the people of 
Nashville : 

But in calling a convention to restore the State, who shall restore and 
reestablish it? . . . Shall he who brought this misery upon the State 
be permitted to control its destinies? If this be so, then all this precious 
blood of our brave soldiers and officers so freely poured out will have 
been wantonly spilled. . . . 

Why all this carnage and devastation? It was that treason might be 
put down and traitors punished. Therefore I say that traitors should 
take a back seat in the work of restoration. If there be but five thousand 
men in Tennessee loyal to the Constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to 
justice, these true and faithful men should control the work of reorgani- 
zation and reformation absolutely. I say that the traitor has ceased to 
be a citizen, and in joining the rebellion has become a public enemy. He 
forJFeited his right to vote with loyal men when he renounced his citizen- 
ship and sought to destroy our Government. . . . If we are so cau- 
tious about foreigners who voluntarily renounce their homes to live with 
us what should we say to the traitor, who, although born and reared 
among us, has raised a parricidal hand against the Government which 
always protected him? My judgment is that he should be subjected to 
a severe ordeal before he is restored to citizenship. . . . Before these 
repenting rebels can be trusted, let them bring forth the fruits of repent- 
ance. . . . Treason must be made odious, and traitors must be pun- 
ished and impoverished. Their great plantations must be seized, and 
divided into small farms, and sold to honest, industrious men. The day 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 439 

for protecting the lands and negroes of these authors of the rebelhon is 
past. It is high time it was/ 

Though he had never been accustomed to conceal his 
opinions on questions of pubHc interest, and though there was 
no reason for supposing that his views on reorganization had 
changed in the months intervening between the Nashville 
speech and his inauguration, there was considerable curiosity, 
if not indeed impatience, to learn his sentiments on the para- 
mount issue before the nation. Even the unparalleled excite- 
ment and profound regret occasioned by the assassination of 
Mr. Lincoln could not make men forget the grave questions 
which the changed conditions of the Union presented for the 
consideration of statesmen. Therefore the brief remarks ad- 
dressed by the new Executive to those who were present at his 
inauguration were eagerly scrutinized for some indication of 
the principles which he was likely to adopt in the conduct 
of his Administration. The absence, however, of even a hint 
on that interesting subject gave universal disappointment, and 
anxious patriots w^ere not reassured by his failure to announce 
any expression of a purpose to continue the policy of his prede- 
cessor. By his intimate friends this omission was construed 
as an intention to pursue in dealing with the South a less 
generous course than, it was believed, Mr. Lincoln had 
marked out. 

Among the more extreme " Radicals " this surmise occa- 
sioned little regret, for they did not object to the accession of 
an Executive made, as they believed, of sterner stuff than the 
late incumbent. From his fierce denunciation of secessionists 
both while military governor of Tennessee and subsequently, 
it was generally understood that more stringent methods 
would be adopted by Mr. Johnson than had hitherto been em- 
ployed. Among other things he said in his inaugural : "As 
to an indication of any policy which may be pursued by me 

' McPherson's Hand-Book of Politics, 1868, p. 46. 



440 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

in the administration of the Government, I have to say that 
that must be left for development, as the administration pro- 
gresses. The message or declaration must be made by the 
acts as they transpire. The only assurance that I can now 
give of the future, is by reference to the past." ^ 

Delegations of citizens who waited upon him to tender 
their cordial support were assured in the most explicit terms 
that his past course was an indication of what his future policy 
would be. Three days after entering upon the duties of his 
office a deputation of distinguished persons called on Mr. John- 
son under circumstances at once unusual and touching. The 
remains of the late President still lay in the White House. 
Before the sad procession of the dead left the national Capital 
for Springfield, Governor Oglesby, with other gentlemen from 
Illinois, called to assure the new Executive of their respect 
and confidence. His record, they declared, gave assurance to 
their State that in his hands they could safely trust the des- 
tinies of the Republic. The President responded in a speech 
discussing a far wider range of topics than he had treated in 
his inaugural. Appropriate reference to his predecessor, the 
tragical close of whose career was scarcely alluded to in his 
first address, was made in this more extended discourse. He 
spoke with unaffected and profound emotion. " The beloved 
of all hearts has been assassinated," said he, " and when we 
trace this crime to its cause, when we remember the source 
whence the assassin drew his inspiration, and then look at 
the result, we stand yet more astounded at this most barbar- 
ous, most diabolical act. . . . We can trace its cause 
through successive steps back to that source which is the 
spring of all our woes. No one can say that if the perpetrator 
of this fiendish deed be arrested, he should not undergo the 
extremest penalty of the law known for crime : none will say 
that mercy should interpose. But is he alone guilty? Here, 

' Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 800. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 441 

gentlemen, you perhaps expect me to present some indication 
of my future policy. One thing I will say : every era teaches 
its lesson. The times we live in are not without instruction. 
The American people must be taught — if they do not already 
feel — that treason is a crime and must be punished. . . . 
When we turn to the criminal code we find arson laid down 
as a crime with its appropriate penalty. We find theft and 
murder denounced as crimes, and their appropriate penalty 
prescribed; and there, too, we find the last and highest of 
crimes, — treason. . . . Let it be engraven on every 
mind that treason is a crime, and traitors shall suffer its pen- 
alty. . . . I do not harbor bitter or resentful feelings 
towards any. . . . When the question of exercising 
mercy comes before me it will be considered calmly, judicially 
— remembering that I am the Executive of the Nation. I 
know men love to have their names spoken of in connection 
with acts of mercy, and how easy it is to yield to that im- 
pulse. But we must never forget that what may be mercy 
to the individual is cruelty to the State." 

Commenting on this speech Mr. Blaine, from whom it is 
quoted, says that it " was reported by an accomplished stenog- 
rapher, and was submitted to Mr. Johnson's inspection be- 
fore publication. It contained a declaration intimating to its 
hearers, if not explicitly assuring them, that * the policy of Mr. 
Lincoln in the past shall be my policy in the future.' When 
in reading the report he came to this passage, Mr. Johnson 
queried whether his words had not been in some degree mis- 
apprehended; and while he was engaged with the stenographer 
in modifying the form of expression, Mr. Preston King, of 
New York, who was constantly by his side as adviser, inter- 
posed the suggestion that all reference to the subject be 
stricken out. To this Mr. Johnson promptly assented. He 
had undoubtedly gone farther than he intended in speaking 
to Mr. Lincoln's immediate friends, and the correction — in- 



442 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

spired by one holding the radical views of Mr. King — was 
equivalent to a declaration that the .policy of Mr. Lincoln had 
been more conservative than that which he intended to pur- 
sue." 1 

To a deputation of New Hampshire citizens he said in part : 
" This Government is now passing through 'a fiery, and, let 
us hope, its last ordeal — one that will test its powers -of en- 
durance, and will determine whether it can do what its enemies 
have denied — suppress and punish treason." Though he had 
been urged, he asserted, by friends whose good opinion he 
valued, he refrained from foreshadowing in a public mani- 
festo the policy which would guide him. He further observed 
on this occasion : " I know it is easy, gentlemen, for any one 
who is so disposed, to acquire a reputation for clemency and 
mercy. But the public good imperatively requires a just dis- 
crimination in the exercise of these qualities. ... To 
relieve one from the penalty of crime may be productive of 
national disaster. The American people must be taught to 
know and understand that treason is a crime. 
Treason is a crime, and must be punished as a crime. It 
must not be regarded as a mere difference of political opinion. 
It must not be excused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be 
overlooked and forgiven- It is a crime before which all 
others sink into insignificance; and in saying this it must 
not be considered that I am influenced by angry or revengeful 
feelings." He added, that to those who had been deluded 
and deceived by designing men, to those who had been only 
technically guilty of treason, he would accord amnesty, leni- 
ency and mercy. On the instigators of rebellion, however, 
should be visited " the full penalty of their crimes." ^ 

Replying, April 21, to an address of Governor Morton, who 
introduced a delegation from Indiana, he said : " Mine has 

* Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II. pp. 9-11. 

* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 800. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 443 

been but one straight-forward and unswerving course, and I 
see no reason why I should depart from it. . . . 

" I hold it as a solemn obligation in any one of these 
States where the rebel armies have been driven back or ex- 
pelled — I care not how small the number of Union men, if 
enough to man the ship of State — I hold it, I say, a high 
duty to protect and secure to them a republican form of 
government. This is no new opinion. ... In adjust- 
ing and putting the government upon its legs again, I think 
the progress of this work must pass into the hands of its 
friends. If a State is to be nursed until it again gets strength, 
it must be nursed by its friends, and not smothered by its 
enemies."^ To this delegation he declared himself not less 
opposed to consolidation than to dissolution and disintegra- 
tion. In a brief reply on the same day to a deputation from 
Ohio he added nothing of value to these observations, and on 
the 24th of April he addressed in a similar strain a body of 
exiles from the South. 

" The colored American asks but two things," said the 
spokesman of a negro delegation about the same time, 
" that he have, first, complete emancipation, and secondly, 
full equality before American law." To this the Presi- 
dent replied, among other things, that he feared leading 
colored men did not " understand and appreciate the fact that 
they have friends on the south side of the line. They have, 
and they are as faithful and staunch as any north of the line. 
It may be a very easy thing, indeed popular, to be an eman- 
cipationist north of the line, but a very different thing to be 
such south of it. South of it, it costs a man effort, property, 
and perhaps life." ^ 

Two months later, June 24, in replying to an address of 
a South Carolina committee, he said in part : " The friction 

* McPherson's Pol. Hand-Book, 1868, pp. 45-46. 
*Ann. Cycl., 1865, pp. 801-802. 



444 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of the rebellion has rubbed out the nature and character of 
slavery. The loyal men who were compelled to bow and submit 
to the rebellion should, now that the rebellion is ended, stand 
equal to loyal men everywhere. Hence the wish of recon- 
struction, and the trying to get back the States to the point 
at which they formerly moved in perfect harmony." He re- 
minded them that as an institution slavery was gone, and said 
there was no hope that the people of South Carolina would 
be admitted into either the Senate or the House of Representa- 
tives until by their conduct they had afforded evidence of 
this truth. In their circumstances the true policy was to re- 
store the State government, not through military rule, but by 
the action of the people.^ 

Desiring to relieve all loyal citizens and well-disposed per- 
sons from unnecessary trade restrictions, and to encourage 
a return to peaceful pursuits, the President removed, April 
29, 1865, the interdict on all domestic and coastwise inter- 
course in that portion of the late Confederate States east of 
the Mississippi and within the lines of national military occu- 
pation. From this order, however, certain named articles 
contraband of war were excepted. Military and naval regu- 
lations in conflict with his proclamation were revoked. On 
May 22 following he announced that ports in the same dis- 
trict would be reopened to foreign commerce after July i, 
1865, though certain places in Texas were still denied this 
privilege. 

The insurrection hitherto existing in Tennessee was de- 
clared at an end on June 13, 1865. The authority of the 
United States, this Proclamation asserted, was unquestioned 
within the limits of that commonwealth, and duly commis- 
sioned Federal officials were in undisturbed exercise of their 
functions. All disabilities attaching to the State and its in- 
habitants were therefore removed; but nothing contained in 

*Ann, Cycl., 1865, p. 802. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 445 

the order was to be construed as affecting any of the penalties 
and forfeitures for treason which had previously been 
incurred. 

Ten days later, June 2^, the blockade of Galveston and 
other ports beyond the Mississippi was rescinded. These were 
to be opened to foreign trade on the ist of July succeeding. 
It was ordered, August 29, 1865, that after September i all 
restrictions upon internal, domestic and coastwise commerce 
be removed, so that even articles contraband of war might be 
imported into and sold in the late insurgent States, the neces- 
sity for prohibiting intercourse in those articles having in 
great measure ceased. 

In an order dated May 9, 1865, the President declared null 
and void all acts and proceedings of the military and civil 
organizations of Virginia which had been in rebellion against 
the General Government; also that all persons who should 
exercise or attempt to exercise any authority, jurisdiction or 
right under Jefferson Davis, and his confederates, or under 
John Letcher or William Smith,^ and their confederates, or 
any pretended commission or authority issued by them, or 
any of them, since April 17, 1861, would be deemed and taken 
as in rebellion against the United States, and dealt with ac- 
cordingly. By the same order the authority of the United 
States was revived within the geographical limits known as 
Virginia, and the heads of the several Executive Departments 
were instructed to enforce therein all Federal laws the ad- 
ministration of which belonged to their respective offices. 

To carry into effect the constitutional guaranty of a repub- 
lican form of government and "afford the advantage and 
security of domestic laws, as well as to complete the reestab- 
lishment of the authority of the laws of the United States, and 
the full and complete restoration of peace within the limits 
aforesaid, Francis H. Pierpont, Governor of the State of 

* Letcher and Smith were Governors of Virginia during the war. 



446 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Virginia," was assured of such assistance from the Federal 
authorities as was beHeved necessary in any lawful measures 
that he might adopt for extending the State government 
throughout that Commonwealth.^ 

The Secretary of the Treasury was directed to nominate 
without delay assessors of taxes and collectors of customs and 
internal revenue, and such other officers of his Department as 
were authorized by law, to execute the revenue laws of the 
United States. Preference in making appointments was to 
be given to qualified loyal residents of the districts in which 
their respective duties were to be performed; but if suitable 
persons could not be found residing there, then citizens of 
other States or districts should be named. 

In the matter of appointments similar instructions were 
given to the Postmaster-General, who was empowered to es- 
tablish post offices and post routes, and to enforce the postal 
laws of the United States in the State of Virginia. 

The heads of the remaining Executive Departments, State, 
War, Navy and Interior, were likewise ordered to enforce the 
acts of Congress pertaining to their respective offices. The 
judge of the United States District Court for Virginia was 
directed to hold courts in that Commonwealth, while it was 
made the duty of the Attorney-General to instruct the proper 
officers to libel and bring to judgment, confiscation and sale, 
property subject to confiscation, and to provide for the admin- 
istration of justice within the said State in all matters of 
which the Federal courts had cognizance. 

It was this recognition of his government, and this assur- 
ance of support, that induced Mr. Pierpont less than three 
weeks afterward to remove his capital from Alexandria. An 
account of this event as well as of the nature of the Gover- 
nor's duties in his enlarged jurisdiction, has been anticipated. 

In recognizing Mr. Pierpont as Governor of Virginia, 
' McPherson's Pol. Hand-Book, 1868, p. 8. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 447 

President Johnson merely concluded to retain for reconstruc- 
tion what had already been accomplished by the loyal minor- 
ity of that Commonwealth. Nor is it easy to perceive why, 
by rejecting what had been done, he should have increased 
the difficulties of a situation even then sufficiently complicated. 
While military governor of Tennessee he had executed, and, 
so far as appears, without remonstrance, all the measures 
recommended by Mr. Lincoln, so that when he succeeded to 
the Presidency he was to some extent committed to the policy 
of his predecessor. He preserved his consistency by en- 
deavoring to maintain that system in which he had formerly 
acquiesced, and in sustaining the reconstructed governments 
of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia it is some- 
what hazardous to affirm that he acted unwisely. More than 
this the adherents of President Lincoln could not reasonably 
have expected. Mr. Johnson was not, however, required hy 
any consideration of moment to apply that mode of restoration 
to the seven remaining States; nor is it by any means certain 
that he had a legal right to do so. With President Lincoln the 
problem was to preserve the Union. To effect that object he 
believed it necessary to institute loyal governments, and his 
action in so doing appears to have been clearly within his 
powers as Commander-in-Chief. Had his course been unwise 
or even prejudicial to national interests, the reorganization 
of those States was still a legitimate war measure to which 
his discretion undoubtedly extended. When Andrew John- 
son became President, however, the nature of the problem had 
greatly changed, for even though no proclamation had yet 
announced the termination of the Rebellion, hostilities had 
entirely ceased before he issued the first of his orders on re- 
construction. It was only by something like a legal fiction, 
therefore, that the war powers could longer be exercised. It is 
believed that his failure to recognize the different circum- 
stances was an error of judgment. The danger of a renewal 



448 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

of the conflict was not sufficiently real to justify a continuance 
of the unlimited authority that might be deemed necessary in 
time of war. He was aware that Congress had refused to ad- 
mit representatives or to count electoral votes from those 
States reorganized during the Rebellion, when the action of 
the Executive rested on the firm, if somewhat undefined, foun- 
dation of the war powers. After a majority, even in these 
circumstances, had pronounced against that system, on what 
ground could the new President base his expectation of suc- 
cess? Without first assuring himself of the cooperation of 
the Legislative branch he should not have undertaken the ar- 
duous task of reviving Union governments in those common- 
wealths where even the very image of civil authority had been 
effaced. Perhaps he had been convinced that the method of 
restoration was analogous to the process of terminating war 
with a foreign power- in which the initiative is to be taken 
by the Executive Department of Government. On this sub- 
ject Mr. Blaine acutely remarks, that, " There is nothing of 
which a public officer can be so easily persuaded as of the en- 
larged jurisdiction that pertains to his station." ^ It was 
fwhile executing his measures of reconstruction that Mr. Lin- 
coln discovered the real sentiments and, to his surprise, no 
doubt, encountered the determined opposition of Congress. 
In the case of his successor the same excuse cannot be urged, 
for he was aware of the temper of the Republican majority, 
and appears to have consulted only his .courage in espousing 
a cause already condemned by many of the most influential 
leaders of the party to which he principally owed his election. 
As the order recognizing the Alexandria government 
marked no distinct Executive policy, speculation could still 
amuse or employ itself on the expected announcement by the 
new President. The first step in that momentous undertaking 
was the appointment, May 29, 1865, of William W. Holden 
* Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II. p. 70. 



I 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 449 

as Provisional Governor of North Carolina. The order pro- 
mulgating that measure was as follows : 

Whereas the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution of 
the United States declares that the United States shall guarantee to every 
State in the Union a republican form of government, and shall protect 
each of them against invasion and domestic violence; and whereas the 
President of, the United States is, by the Constitution, made commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy, as well as chief civil executive officer of 
the United States, and is bound by solemn oath faithfully to execute the 
office of President of the United States, and to take care that the laws 
be faithfully executed ; and whereas the rebellion, which has been waged 
by a portion of the people of the United States against the properly con- 
stituted authorities of the Government thereof, in the most violent and 
revolting form, but whose organized and armed forces have now been 
almost entirely overcome, has, in its revolutionary progress, deprived the 
people of the State of North Carolina of all civil government; and 
whereas it becomes necessary and proper to carry out and enforce the 
obligations of the United States to the people of North Carolina, in se- 
curing them in the enjoyment of a republican form of government: 

Now, therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed 
upon me by the Constitution of the United States, and for the purpose of 
enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a State government, 
whereby justice may be established, domestic tranquillity insured, and 
loyal citizens protected in all their rights of life, liberty, and property, I, 
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, and Commander-in- 
Chief of the army and navy of the United States, do hereby appoint Wil- 
liam W. Holden, Provisional Governor of the State of North Carolina, 
whose duty it shall be, at the earliest practicable period, to prescribe such 
rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for convening a 
convention, composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of the 
people of said State who are loyal to the United States, and no others, 
for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution thereof; and 
with authority to exercise, within the limits of said State, all the powers 
necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the State of North 
Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional relations to the Fed- 
eral Government, and to present such a republican form of State gov- 
ernment as will entitle the State to the guarantee of the United States 
therefor, and its people to protection by the United States against in- 
vasion, insurrection, and domestic violence; Provided, that in any elec- 
tion that may be hereafter held for choosing delegates to any State con- 
vention, as aforesaid, no person shall be qualified as an elector, or shall 
be eligible as a member of such convention, unless he shall have pre- 
viously taken the oath of amnesty, as set forth in the President's procla- 



450 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

mation of May 29, A. D. 1865, and is a voter qualified as prescribed by 
the Constitution and laws of. the State of North Carolina, in force im- 
mediately before the 20th day of May, 1861, the date of the so-called 
ordinance of secession; and the said convention when convened, or the 
Legislature that may be thereafter assembled, will prescribe the qualifi- 
cations of electors, and the eligibility of persons to hold office under the 
Constitution and laws of the State, a power the people of the several 
States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the 
origin of the Government to the present time. 

And I do hereby direct : 

First. That the military commander of the Department, and all officers 
and persons in the military and naval service aid and assist the said 
Provisional Governor in carrying into effect this proclamation, and they 
are enjoined to abstain from, in any way, hindering, impeding or dis- 
couraging the loyal people from the organization of a State Government, 
as herein authorized. 

Then followed instructions, similar to those contained in 
the order of May 9, relative to Virginia, directing the heads 
of the several Executive Departments to enforce those Fed- 
eral laws in North Carolina of which the administration be- 
longed to their respective offices. 

Somewhat earlier on the same day was published an 
Amnesty Proclamation, renewing in effect the provisions of 
that issued by Mr. Lincoln on the 8th of December, 1863. It 
increased, however, the number of classes excepted from the 
benefits of the original offer by adding the following: 

All persons who have been or are absentees from the United States 
for the purpose of aiding the rebellion. 

All military and naval officers in the rebel service, who were educated 
by the Government in the Military Academy at West Point or the United 
States Naval Academy. 

All persons who held the pretended offices of governors of States in 
insurrection against the United States. 

All persons who left their homes within the jurisdiction and protection 
of the United States, and passed beyond the Federal military lines into the 
pretended confederate States for the purpose of aiding the rebellion. 

All persons who have been engaged in the destruction of the commerce 
of the United States upon the high seas, and all persons who have made 
raids into the United States from Canada, or been engaged in destroying 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 451 

the commerce of the United States upon the lakes and rivers that separate 
the British Provinces from the United States. 

All persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits 
hereof by taking the oath herein prescribed, are in military, naval, or 
civil confinement, or custody, or under bonds of the civil, military, or 
naval authorities, or agents of the United States, as prisoners of war, 
or persons detained for offences of any kind, either before or after con- 
viction. 

All persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion, and the 
estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty thousand dol- 
lars. 

All persons who have taken the oath of amnesty as prescribed in the 
President's proclamation of December 8, A. D. 1863, or an oath of 
allegiance to the Government of the United States since the date of said 
proclamation, and who have not thenceforward kept and maintained the 
same inviolate.* 

The proclamation provided, however, that persons belong- 
ing to the excluded classes could make special application for 
pardon, when such liberal clemency would be exercised by the 
President as was deemed consistent with the facts in each 
case, and with the peace and dignity of the United States. 

Secretary Seward, who attested the proclamation, approved 
its general tenor as well as its details. At first he appears to 
have opposed the " Twenty-thousand-dollar exclusion," but 
finally yielded to the arguments of the President, who by 
this description had hoped to include a numerous class that 
did not come under any of those specified. In this re- 
spect it possessed the comprehensive as well as the conveni- 
ent character of a general warrant. All attempts to fix re- 
sponsibility for secession have proved futile, and it is difficult 
to explain the President's attitude toward Southern men of 
property unless, indeed, he meant to humiliate a class that 
he personally disliked, or, perhaps, he intended to act upon the 
principle that to be mild it is necessary first to appear cruel. 
Precisely why the other classes were excepted from the offer 
of indemnity the reader of Rebellion literature need not be 

'McPherson's Pol. Hand-Book, 1868, pp. lo-ii. 



452 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

informed. The amnesty proclamation applied to all the in- 
surgent States. 

Like the " Louisiana plan," the order appointing Mr. Hol- 
den was based on that clause of the Federal Constitution 
which guarantees " to every State in this Union a republican 
form of government." It was in his character of Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army and Navy, as well as Executive, that he 
assumed to appoint a provisional governor. The Rebellion, 
which in its progress had " deprived the people of the State 
of North Carolina of all civil government," he described as 
having been " almost entirely overcome." This condition 
rendered it necessary to fulfill the Federal obligation to secure 
to the people of that State a republican form of government. 
The order being self-explanatory, it only remains to observe 
that none but " loyal people " were to participate in electing 
delegates to the convention, which it was made the duty of the 
Governor to convoke. The term " loyal people " included all 
who would take the oath and receive the pardon provided for 
in the proclamation. These were required to be qualified 
voters under the laws in force immediately before the act of 
secession. By this provision the negroes of the State were 
excluded from the electoral people, and the work of recon- 
struction left entirely in the hands of the whites. The con- 
vention chosen by these citizens, or the Legislature that might 
be thereafter assembled, was authorized to *' prescribe the 
qualifications of electors, and the eligibility of persons to hold 
office under the constitution and laws of the State, a power," 
added the order, which " the people of the several States com- 
posing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the 
origin of the Government to the present time." 

Governor Holden in a proclamation of June 12, 1865, 
announced his appointment and declared his purpose to order 
an election of delegates to a State convention, the object of 
calling which was briefly noticed. He also made known his 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 453 

intention to commission justices of the peace for the purpose 
of administering the oath of allegiance and opening the 
polls. He urged the people to resume their accustomed pur- 
suits; refugees were encouraged by an offer of protection to 
return to the State, and freedmen were instructed in the duties 
peculiar to their altered circumstances. 

By a second proclamation, dated August 8, the choice of 
delegates to the proposed convention was fixed for September 
21 succeeding. Some delay in appointing a date for holding 
the election was occasioned by a desire to afford the people an 
opportunity of enrolling their names and obtaining the re- 
quired certificates. 

By such voters as were not included in any of the excepted 
classes, together with the few who had been able to procure the 
Presidential pardon, full delegations were chosen in all but 
three counties. The details of this election accessible to the 
writer are exceedingly meagre. Owing much to the timely 
publication and the admirable character of the orders of Gen- 
eral Schofield, who had exercised the functions of military 
governor until superseded by Mr. Holden, the contest appears 
to have been free from unusual violence, though newspaper 
correspondents, it is true, reported disturbances at several 
polling places and mention rumors of rioting. 

The convention, which assembled at Raleigh on October 2, 
was composed for the most part of members who had either 
openly opposed or reluctantly joined the secession movement. 
There were few, however, who had not given aid and comfort 
to the enemy. In other words, they were Whigs and con- 
servative Democrats. Every representative readily took the 
oath to support the Constitution of the United States. The 
convention organized by electing Edwin G. Reade, an ex- 
member of the Thirty-fifth Congress, as president. On taking 
his seat Mr. Reade made an appropriate and conciliatory ad- 
dress. 



454 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The Provisional Governor also submitted to the members 
of the convention a brief message in which he observed that 
their duties were too plain to require any suggestions from 
him. North Carolina, he said, attempted in May, 1861, to 
separate herself from the Union. That attempt involved her 
in protracted and disastrous war. She entered the rebellion 
a slaveholding and emerged from it a non-slaveholding State. 
" In other respects," he declared, " so far as her existence as a 
State and her rights as a State are concerned, she has under- 
gone no change." ^ He assumed that the convention would 
insert in the organic law a provision forever prohibiting invol- 
untary servitude in North Carolina. The language abolish- 
ing that institution, the form of the resolution abrogating the 
ordinance of secession and the nature of the action to be taken 
on the war debt were the most important questions before the 
convention. 

On October 7 the repealing ordinance was passed unani- 
mously in the following terms : 

The ordinance of the convention of the State of North Carolina, rati- 
fied on the 21 St day of November, 1789, which adopted and ratified the 
Constitution of the United States, and also all acts and parts of acts of 
the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said 
Constitution, are now, and at all times since the adoption and ratification 
thereof, have been, in full force and effect, notwithstanding the supposed 
ordinance of the 20th of May, 1861, declaring the same to be repealed, 
rescinded, and abrogated ; and the said supposed ordinance is now, and 
at all times hath been, null and void.* 

The resolution abolishing slavery, reported on the following 
day, was adopted on the 9th of October, and is as follows : 

Be it declared and ordained by the delegates of the people of the State 
of North Carolina in convention assembled, and it is hereby declared and 
ordained, That slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than for 

' Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 626. 

•This ordinance was ratified by a vote of 20,506 to 2,002; Poore's Char- 
ters and Constitutions, Vol. II. p. I4i9n ; also Three Decades of Federal 
Legislation, p. 385. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 455 

crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and 
is hereby, forever prohibited within the State.' 

Not without some reluctance there was also adopted a reso- 
lution prohibiting any future Legislature from assuming or 
paying any State debt created directly or indirectly for the 
purpose of aiding the Rebellion. There seems to have been 
in the convention a strong element opposed to the passage of 
such a measure, or at all events who preferred to refer it to a 
popular vote. The decision of the convention on this subject 
appears to have been influenced by a telegram from the Presi- 
dent to Governor Holden, in which the former says : 

Every dollar of the debt created to aid the rebellion against the United 
States should be repudiated finally and forever. The great mass of the 
people should not be taxed to pay a debt to aid in carrying on a re- 
bellion which they in fact, if left to themselves, were opposed to. Let 
those who have given their means for the obligations of the State look 
to that power they tried to establish in violation of law. Constitution, 
and will of the people. They must meet their fate. It is their mis- 
fortune, and cannot be recognized by the people of any State professing 
themselves loyal to the Government of the United States and in the 
Union. ... * 

The convention adjourned October 19 to reassemble on the 
fourth Thursday of May, 1866. Judge Reade, its president, 
previously delivered a farewell address, in which he said: 
'* Our work is finished. The breach in the Government, as 
far as the same was by force, has been overcome by force; 
and so far as the same has had the sanction of legislation, the 
legislation has been declared to be null and void. So that 
there remains nothing to be done except the withdrawal of 
military power when all our governmental relations will be 
restored, without further asking, on the part of the United 
States. The element of slavery, which so long distracted and 

* Ratified by 19,039 to 3,970 votes. Poore's Charters and Constitutions, 
Vol. II. p. I4i9n. 

• McPherson's Pol. Hand-Book, 1868, p. 19. 



456 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

divided the sections, has by an unanimous vote been abolished. 
Every man in the State is free. The reluctance which for a 
while was felt to the sudden and radical change in our domes- 
tic relations — a reluctance which was made oppressive to us 
by our kind feelings for the slave, and by our apprehensions 
of the evils which were to follow him — has yielded to the de- 
termination to be to him, as we always have been, his best 
friends; to advise, protect, educate and elevate him; to seek 
his confidence, and to give him ours, each occupying appropri- 
ate positions to the other. ... It remains for us to re- 
turn to our constituents and engage with them in the great 
work of restoring our beloved State to order and prosperity." ^ 
An election, fixed for November 9, was ordered by Mr. 
Holden for the choice of Governor, members of a General As- 
sembly, county officers and Representatives in Congress. On 
the same occasion the people were to vote on the ordinance 
abolishing and prohibiting slavery. The action of the con- 
vention on the Confederate debt being final, that subject was 
not referred to the popular judgment. 

On behalf of the convention the president and other dele- 
gates soon after adjournment proceeded to Washington to 
acquaint Mr. Johnson with the result of their deliberations. 
They related to him what has already been placed before the 
reader. As the convention had yielded what was involved in 
the war, President Johnson was requested to declare on the 
part of the Federal authorities that the governmental rela- 
tions of North Carolina had been reconciled. Notwithstand- 
ing what had been done they feared that their State delega- 
tion would be excluded from Congress by the imposition of a 
test oath which few men in that commonwealth could take. 
The convention, therefore, petitioned Congress, through Mr. 
Johnson, to repeal the requirement. The President, after ex- 
pressing his satisfaction with what North Carolina had done, 
* Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. XXXII., p. 127. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 457 

reminded the delegates that to make restoration practicable 
one thing still remained to be accomplished, namely, their ac- 
ceptance of the amendment abolishing slavery throughout the 
United States. 

The ordinances submitted to the people were ratified at the 
November election, when Jonathan Worth was chosen Gover- 
nor over Mr. Holden by a majority of 6,730, in a total of 
58,554 votes. The repeal of the secession ordinance was 
ratified by a vote of 20,506 to 2,002, and that prohibiting 
slavery by 19,039 against 3,970. 

In a dispatch of November 27, President Johnson, thanking 
the Provisional Governor for the efficient manner in which he 
had executed his duties, said that the result of the election was 
greatly to damage the prospects of the State in the restora- 
tion of its government, that if the action and spirit of the Leg- 
islature were in the same direction it would greatly increase 
the harm already done, and might prove fatal. He hoped the 
mischief would be repaired.^ 

Meanwhile the Legislature during a brief session ratified, 
with only six dissenting votes, the Thirteenth Amendment, 
and elected John Pool and William A. Graham United States 
Senators. Seven Representatives in Congress had been pre- 
viously chosen. 

Mr. Holden, who continued to perform the functions of his 
office until the inauguration of his successor on the 15th of 
December, probably owed his appointment to his reputation 
as a Democratic editor. Though his rise to political promi- 
nence was similar to that of the President, he had not the 
latter's inflexibility of principle. A secessionist in 1856, when 
the success of Fremont appeared probable, he soon began to 
recede from that position, and in 1859 was opposed to dis- 
union; subsequently he drifted with the popular current and 
even went so far in an advanced stage of the Rebellion as to 
' Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 628. 



458 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

advocate a " last-dollar-and-last-man " resolution. But even 
this, together with the expression of extreme opinions, did not 
restore him to public confidence, and before the end of the 
war the Standard, which he edited, became the organ of the 
disaffected. Notwithstanding this wavering and inconsistent 
career the fact that he was generally regarded as an enemy of 
secession singled him out as the proper person to reorganize 
the government of North Carolina. 

Though the President was not indifferent to the demoralized 
condition of his native State, that consideration alone does not 
appear to have induced him to begin the process of reconstruc- 
tion with that commonwealth. There is strong testimony to 
prove that Mr. Lincoln had prepared a similar proclamation 
for restoring the former relations of North Carolina, and on 
July 8, 1867, General Grant testified before the Joint Com' 
mittee on Reconstruction that he had twice heard read at 
meetings of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet a paper embodying the 
same provisions as that published by President Johnson. 

Before taking the second step a brief interval elapsed; per- 
haps the President was hesitating; however this may be, he 
informed Hon. George S. Boutwell that " the measure was 
tentative." The fears of the Massachusetts statesman and his 
concern for harmony in the Republican party, of which he was 
an able and honored leader, induced him, in company with 
Senator Morrill, of Vermont, to call on the President. Dur- 
ing their conversation Mr. Johnson, when the dangers 
of his policy were indicated, assured his visitors " that noth- 
ing further would be done until the experiment had been 
tested." * 

Notwithstanding this deliberate assurance, the President 
at that time appears to have almost determined on the system 
that he intended to adopt, for scarcely two weeks had passed 
when he appointed, by a proclamation similar to that for North 

* McClure's Magazine, Dec, 1899, p. 174. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 459 

Carolina, William L. Sharkey, Provisional Governor of Mis- 
sissippi. Within a month from the date of Mr. Holden's ap- 
pointment others were made for all the remaining States ex- 
cept Florida, the order for reorganizing v^hich was delayed 
till July 13.1 

The origin and development of the Executive plan having 
now been traced with some degree of minuteness, it is not the 
design of this essay to pursue circumstantially the institution 
of that system in the six remaining States. By proclamations 
almost identical with that issued in the case of North Carolina, 
provisional governors were appointed in all of those common- 
wealths before the middle of July. Though the method of 
reorganization in these States presented similar features, sev- 
eral were distinguished in some respects from the others. 
Observations on those differences will employ nearly all that 
remains to be said on Reconstruction under President John- 
son. 

The appointment of Mr. Holden alarmed Republican lead- 
ers; the successive proclamations for restoring the other 
States directed public attention to the questions involved in 
reconstruction. Seeing that Congress was not in session, that 
the President had assumed an expectant attitude, and that 
every plan of reunion proposed was liable to serious objection, 
it is not a matter of wonder that the recent Confederate au- 
thorities attempted of themselves to restore Federal relations. 

These were among the considerations that induced Gover- 
nor Clarke, of Mississippi, to summon the Legislature of that 
State to meet on May 18. In his address convoking the dis- 
loyal assembly he urged the people, in order to remove the 
necessity for sending Federal troops among them, to restore 

* The Provisional appointments were made in the following order : 
June 13, 1865, William L. Sharkey, Mississippi ; June 17, James Johnson, 
Georgia, and Andrew J. Hamilton, Texas; June 21, Lewis E. Parsons, 
Alabama; June 30, Benjamin F. Perry, South Carolina; July 13, William 
Marvin, Florida. 



46o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

and preserve peace. The Legislature came together accord- 
ingly, and, among other measures, provided for the election, 
on June 19, of delegates to a State convention. Before that 
date, however, the President had appointed William L. Shar- 
key, an eminent jurist. Provisional Governor, thus ignoring 
both the measures of Mr. Clarke and the insurgent assembly. 
The latter was dispersed by a military order, while the Gov- 
ernor was carried off to a fortress in Boston harbor. 

Mr. Sharkey, in a dutiful and able address, appointed 
August 7 as the day for holding an election of delegates to a 
State convention which was to meet at the city of Jackson one 
week later. In this proclamation, he said : " The negroes 
are now free — ■ free by the fortunes of war — free by proc- 
lamation — free by common consent — free practically, as well 
as theoretically, and it is too late to raise questions as to the 
means by which they became so." ^ Though the Governor, 
to avoid the delay of separate county organization, had ap- 
pointed many local officials who had held their posts during 
the Rebellion, he required all of them to take the oath of 
allegiance prescribed by the President. 

The convention, which assembled at the appointed time, 
declared the ordinance of secession null and void, prohibited 
slavery and made it the duty of the next Legislature to provide 
for the protection of the person and the property of freedmen. 
The lawmaking body was also to take measures for guard- 
ing both the negroes and the commonwealth against any evils 
that might arise from sudden emancipation. The first Mon- 
day in October was appointed for the election of State officers 
and members of Congress. A memorial was also adopted 
urging the President to remove the colored troops from the 
State. The members, acting apparently in their individual 
capacity, united in a petition for the pardon of Jefferson Davis 
and of Governor Clarke. The amendment of the State con- 

* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 580. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 461 

stitution abolishing slavery was adopted by the decisive vote 
of 86 to II. After South Carolina, Missisissippi contained 
the greatest proportion of slaves, and was thus very deeply 
involved in the system. 

While the convention was in session the President sent to 
Governor Sharkey a telegram in which he made the following 
remarkable suggestion : 

I am gratified to see that you have organized your convention without 
difficulty. ... If you could extend the elective franchise to all 
persons of color who can read the Constitution of the United States in 
English and write their names, and to all persons of color who own real 
estate valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars and pay 
taxes thereon, you would completely disarm the adversary and set an 
example the other States will follow. This you can do with perfect 
safety, and you would thus place Southern States in reference to free 
persons of color upon the same basis with the free States. I hope and 
trust your convention will do this, and as a consequence the radicals, who 
are wild upon negro franchise, will be completely foiled in their attempts 
to keep the Southern States from renewing their relations to the Union 
by not accepting their Senators and Representatives.^ 

From the view point of practical politics this recommenda- 
tion was undoubtedly a wise one, but it will scarcely be con- 
tended that it was the suggestion of enlightened statesman- 
ship. The South, distrusting the President's sincerity, re- 
fused to adopt his suggestion. The communication is repro- 
duced, not to show that the President was not always impelled 
by the highest motives so much as to show that even before 
Congress had assembled he had already come to regard as 
'* the adversary " those whose exertions secured his election. 

In his proclamation appointing a date for the election of 
delegates Governor Sharkey advised the people, when it might 
be necessary in consequence of the remoteness of a military 
force, to form a county patrol for the apprehension of offend- 
ers. Information having reached him that in many parts of 

* Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 581. 



462 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

the State organized bands had been robbing and plundering, 
and that the Federal troops were insufficient to suppress 
these disorders, he urged citizens, especially the young 
men who had " so distinguished themselves for gallantry," 
to organize promptly in each county volunteer companies, one 
of cavalry and one of infantry if practicable, to assist in de- 
tecting, punishing and preventing crime. 

From his headquarters at Vicksburg, General Slocum, the 
Federal commander, immediately published an order to pre- 
vent the proposed reorganization of the militia. The con- 
templated force, he said, would be numerically superior to his 
own, and, as many of the Union troops on duty in Mississippi 
were freedmen, collisions would be unavoidable. The crimes 
referred to by Mr. Sharkey were, the General asserted, com- 
mitted against Northern men. Government couriers and ne- 
groes. Southerners, it was true, had been halted by these 
marauders, but were promptly released and informed that 
they had been stopped by mistake. Citizens who recognized 
the persons were unwilling to disclose the names of these 
lawless members of the community. The State, too, he 
declared, had not yet been relieved from the attitude of 
hostility which she assumed against the General Government. 
Those engaged in attempts to organize the militia would be 
arrested. 

Fearing that the President would not support General Slo- 
cum, Carl Schurz, who had been sent South on a mission to 
assist in carrying out the Administration policy, expressed in 
a communication to the President some doubt as to the wisdom 
of the Governor's action. To this the President, in a reply of 
August 30, said he presumed that General Slocum, without 
first consulting the Government, would issue no order interfer- 
ing with Mr. Sharkey in his effort to restore the functions of 
the State government. In the matter of organizing patrols 
Mr. Johnson took the same view as the Governor, and in that 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 463 

connection said, " The people must be trusted with their gov- 
ernment, and, if trusted, my opinion is that they will act in 
good faith and restore their former constitutional relations 
with all the States composing the Union." * 

The lapse of fifteen months had worked a revolution in the 
opinions of the President. Circumstances, it is true, had 
changed since the delivery of his Nashville speech; the main 
question, however, had not greatly altered, for it was still 
important to determine the political people of the late insur- 
gent States. From declaring that " rebels " must take a back 
seat in the work of restoration, the President had come to be- 
lieve that " the people must be trusted with their government." 
It is not to convict Mr. Johnson of inconsistency that his opin- 
ions are here brought into juxtaposition, but rather to inquire 
whether every important consideration for ignoring secession- 
ists in 1864 had disappeared by 1865. 

On representation from the Provisional Governor that the 
Federal commander interfered to prevent the execution of 
his proclamation for reorganizing the militia, the President 
on September 2 required General Slocum to revoke his mili- 
tary order. Under instructions somewhat peremptory in tone, 
that officer two days later rescinded his proclamation. 

The condition of the freedmen, as well as their exact legal 
status, became about this time the subject of much discussion 
in Mississippi. While many continued in the service of their 
old masters, numbers roamed about the country in idleness, 
and nearly all of them had very extravagant notions of their 
newly acquired rights and privileges., Though the whites 
admitted of necessity the complete freedom, they were for the 
most part unprepared to grant equal rights to negroes. Be- 
tween them and their employers, however, there occurred but 
little serious trouble. All labor was contracted for, and own- 
ers of plantations, apprehensive that labor would be difficult 
' Ann. CycL, 1865, p. 583- 



464 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

to secure at the beginning of the season, were anxious to make 
contracts for the year 1866. Toward the close of September 
the assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau turned 
over to the civil authorities all the business of his court. 
To get rid of military tribunals, Governor Sharkey promised 
that in all cases involving the rights of negroes their testimony 
would be accepted. 

In the election, which was held on October 9, General Ben- 
jamin G. Humphreys, late of the Confederate army, was 
chosen Governor ; immediately thereafter he was pardoned by 
the President. Five Representatives in Congress were also 
elected. By the Legislature, which convened and organized 
one week later. Governor Sharkey was appointed United 
States Senator to fill the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis. 
For the long term, Mr. J. L. Alcorn was elected. The legis- 
lation relative to freedmen will be subsequently considered. 

Besides his complaint to the President relative to the inter- 
ference of General Slocum with the proposed reorganization 
of the militia. Governor Sharkey expressed dissatisfaction 
with the military authorities who refused to obey writs of 
habeas corpus issued by local judges. To this Secretary 
Stanton replied that the grant of a provisional government did 
not affect the proper jurisdiction of military courts, and that 
this jurisdiction was still called for in cases of wrong done to 
soldiers, whether white or colored, and in cases of wrong done 
to colored citizens, and where the local authorities were unable 
or unwilling to do justice, either from defective machinery, 
or because some State law declared colored persons incompe- 
tent as witnesses. Mississippi was to a considerable extent 
still under military law, and the suspension of the writ of 
habeas corpus had not been revoked. To a similar remon- 
strance the Secretary of State replied that, the commonwealth 
being still under martial law, the military power was supreme. 

On receiving tidings of General Johnston's surrender, Gov- 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 465 

ernor Brown, of Georgia, called a session of the Confederate 
Legislature, but General Gilmore, who commanded the de- 
partment including that commonwealth, issued a counter- 
proclamation annulling the late Executive's order. General 
Wilson, in writing the ex-Governor, used expressions that 
were needlessly harsh, and whether the language was his own 
or that of the President, to whom the commander ascribed it, 
the style was neither dignified nor magnanimous. Whoever 
may have been responsible for the phraseology, the Union 
General appears to have believed in a rigorous exercise of the 
rights of conquest. With the defeat of this attempt of the 
recent authorities to restore their commonwealth to its old 
status, Georgia remained in military hands till the appoint- 
ment, June 17, of James Johnson as Provisional Governor. 

In the work of reconciling the people of that State the Pro- 
visional Executive was assisted by a sensible address of ex- 
Governor Brown, and by the support of many leading seces- 
sionists. Now that the " irrepressible conflict " had been set- 
tled, the people appeared anxious for the reorganization of 
their State. The 4th of October was early fixed as the date 
for holding an election of delegates. The suffrage of citizens 
was solicited and received by candidates of ability and charac- 
ter. These were pledged to advocate the necessary measures 
for restoring their commonwealth. 

The convention assembled at Milledgeville on October 25, 
was called to order by the Provisional Governor, and elected 
Herschel V. Johnson as its president. Instead of declaring 
the nullity of the secession and kindred ordinances the conven- 
tion " repealed " them. On the question of repudiating the 
war debt the vote stood 133 to 1 17 in favor of the proposition. 
This resolution, however, was not carried until November 7, 
and appears even then to have been passed only after consider- 
able pressure from Washington, whence the President di- 
rected or assisted by telegraph the proceedings in all the 



466 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

reconstruction conventions. The war debt thus declared void 
amounted to $18,135,775. The necessity for this action is 
evident; the hardships occasioned thereby can be easily imag- 
ined. 

The State constitution, which was thoroughly revised, rec- 
ognized the changes that had occurred in civil and social 
affairs. In that instrument the freedom of slaves was ex- 
pressly declared, and the Legislature was required to make 
regulations respecting the altered relations of this class of 
persons. The constitution as thus amended was unanimously 
adopted by the convention. 

Though Georgia was not the most loyal supporter of Jeffer- 
son Davis in the time of his prosperity, now that adversity 
had overtaken him, the convention, in a memorial to President 
Johnson, invoked the Executive clemency in behalf of their 
late chief. The convention assumed for the people their share 
in the crime for which Mr. Davis and a few others were under- 
going punishment. 

As in the case of Mississippi, the President approved the 
organization of " a police force " in the several counties, for 
the purpose of arresting maurauders, suppressing crime and 
enforcing authority. 

The Legislature, which was elected November 15, assem- 
bled at Milledgeville on the 4th of December following. With 
its proceedings we are not now concerned more than to ob- 
serve that the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by that 
body five days subsequently.* The measures of the Georgia 
Assembly were not before Congress when it convened. 

Like the chief magistrates in several other Southern States, 
the Confederate Governor of Texas, when convinced after the 
surrender of General Kirby Smith that the war had ceased, 
took steps toward bringing his commonwealth into its old 
practical relations with the Union. He accordingly ordered 

* Constitution of the United States, by Francis N. Thorpe, p. 49. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 467 

an election of delegates to a convention to be held on June 
19, but was anticipated by President Johnson, who two days 
earlier had appointed Andrew J. Hamilton Provisional Gov- 
ernor. Though the latter did not promptly appoint a day for 
holding the election, he announced his intention of doing so 
at an early date. There was probably in the minds of the less 
intelligent Texans a notion that emancipation was to be grad- 
ual, or that it was not yet an accomplished fact. To dispel 
any such idea the new Executive circulated an address which 
informed the public that if, " in the action of the proposed con- 
vention, the negro is characterized or treated as less than a 
freeman," Senators and Representatives from Texas would 
vainly seek admission to the halls of Congress. The choice of 
delegates having been fixed for January 8, 1866, an account 
of the convention or of the proceedings in the Assembly sub- 
sequently organized in that State does not fall within the scope 
of this work. In the interval justice was administered by 
officers temporarily commissioned for that purpose. 

The negro population, which, because of the influx from 
other Southern States, had doubled since i860, presented a 
difficult problem in the reorganization of Texas. They knew 
little of the uses of freedom and were kept systematically at 
work only by the candid admonitions of General Granger and 
the Governor. Toward the close of December, however, a 
better feeling prevailed among them; but it appears to have 
been a serious problem to have kept the freedmen of Texas 
steadily at work. Planters throughout the State lost heavily 
by their inability to engage or to retain in their service labor- 
ers enough to gather the standing cotton crop. The full con- 
sideration of this subject is inseparable from an analysis of 
Texan legislation relative to freedmen. Though well ad- 
vanced, the reconstruction of Texas under the Executive plan 
was not completed before the meeting of the Thirty-ninth 
Congress. 



468 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Nothing in the reorganization of Alabama or of South 
Carolina calls for especial mention. The same is true of 
Florida. Both the spirit and tendency of Southern legisla- 
tion, however, require to be noticed, and with that examina- 
tion a brief recapitulation will complete this investigation. 

Before concluding this inquiry two related topics require 
briefly to be noticed, namely, the character of the reconstruc- 
tion conventions, and the personnel as well as the spirit of the 
legislatures organized under their authority. As to the former 
it may be observed that there were several modes in which 
constitutional conventions could have been assembled; all, 
however, were objectionable because of an element of irregu- 
larity. Considering them chronologically, rather than logi- 
cally, the first was the method employed by the Union men of 
western Virginia. The Wheeling convention of June, 1861, 
was composed of delegates chosen at elections called, not by 
the constituted authorities, for they were already committed 
to a policy of rebellion, but by a spontaneous popular move- 
ment inaugurated by loyal and influential leaders. The work 
of this body, even though revolutionary, or at least irregular 
in its origin, was acquiesced in by the people affected and sub- 
sequently approved by the General Government. So few, how- 
ever, were the loyalists of the insurgent States generally, that 
it was not practicable elsewhere in the South to reorganize 
governments in a similar manner. 

A second mode was that adopted by Mr. Lincoln. Under 
this method, the President, as Commander-in-Chief, protected 
Union minorities in their efforts to reestablish local govern- 
ments in harmony with the Federal Constitution. This plan, 
it is evident, could be justified merely as a military measure, 
and, therefore, was lawful only during the continuance of the 
Rebellion. On the return of peace all such provisional schemes 
would disappear unless tolerated by the neglect or confirmed 
by the legislation of Congress. The conventions held under 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 469 

this theory rested on the authority of the commanding officer, 
who was himself acting by Executive direction. In reorgan- 
izing the government of Louisiana, General Banks, it will be 
remembered, declared that the fundamental law of that com- 
monwealth was martial law, which was no more than his arbi- 
trary will. In purging the electoral people and amending the 
constitution of that State he acted in strict conformity with 
that assumption. If in the preceding pages the reconstruction 
measures of Mr. Lincoln have been characterized as legitimate, 
it must not be supposed that it was intended to assert that they 
would have been lawful in time of peace, for under the Amer- 
ican system it has never been deemed competent for the na- 
tional Executive to call a convention. Though the establish- 
ments instituted under his authority, except in the case of 
Tennessee, never received the permanent sanction of Congress, 
the conventions which organized these governments stand on 
a foundation somewhat different from those assembled by the 
appointees of President Johnson, for in the summer of 1865 
the plea of military necessity could no longer be urged. If, 
therefore, the conventions held in Louisiana, Arkansas and 
Tennessee were tainted with irregularity, those assembled in 
the remaining States were undoubtedly revolutionary. Tech- 
nically, however, the conventions of both classes stand on the 
same footing. Governor Perry, of South Carolina, regarded 
as revolutionary the body which he convoked to reorganize 
his commonwealth, and for that reason, as he alleged, dis- 
solved the convention before it had taken final action on the 
important question of the Southern debt. 

The course of the Confederate governors of Mississippi, 
Georgia and Texas, who summoned the insurgent legislatures 
of their respective States for the purpose of calling conven- 
tions, suggests a third mode in which the machinery of gov- 
ernment could have been set in motion. This plan, however, 
presented an evident difficulty, inasmuch as these assemblies 



470 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

could not have been recognized without admitting in some 
sort the vaHdity of the secession and kindred ordinances. Mr. 
Lincoln, it is true, intended, before hostilities had ceased, to 
permit the members of the Virginia Legislature to meet as in- 
fluential individuals for the purpose of recalling their State 
troops from the Confederate army. The surrender of Lee oc- 
curring soon after, and the President's action having been mis- 
understood, he withdrew this permission, and did it the more 
readily as the necessity which suggested it had passed com- 
pletely away. The department commanders prevented any 
response to the proclamations of the Executives in the three 
States named above, and President Johnson by his prompt ap- 
pointment of provisional governors ignored or anticipated 
their action. To say nothing of the revolutionary course con- 
templated by the ex-Confederate governors, the success of 
their plan required the approval or at least the connivance of 
Federal authorities. 

Still another manner of proceeding was for Congress, by 
calling or authorizing conventions, to inaugurate the move- 
ment for reconstruction ; but the power of the national Legis- 
lature extends only to the passage of enabling acts for Terri- 
tories, and these commonwealths appear to have been neither 
constitutional Territories nor constitutional States. How- 
ever, as some irregularity was inseparable from any system of 
reorganization, the Legislative branch of Government was the 
authority least objectionable for controlling informal changes 
in the nature of the Union. If powers not conferred by the 
Constitution must be assumed, it is better in the interests of 
civil liberty for the representatives of the people to transcend 
the organic law. 

The second mode, it need scarcely be observed, was that em- 
bodied in the Executive plan. The conventions which assem- 
bled under encouragement and direction of President Johnson 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 471 

had an opportunity unequaled since the formation of the Con- 
stitution of winning the gratitude of the nation. By adopt- 
ing an enHghtened and humane poHcy they could have fur- 
nished an example of patriotism that would serve to influence 
the deliberations not only of the first assemblies to meet under 
the new order, but of all future legislatures in those States. 
It is well known that they did not prove equal to this emer- 
gency; the concessions to Northern opinion were not grace- 
fully yielded, and lost much of their merit by having been 
extorted from the fears of the delegates. In some instances 
the conventions, by assuming functions of the ordinary legis- 
lative character, transcended their powers, and many of 
them " repealed " the ordinances without condemning the 
principle of secession. They amended and even adopted 
constitutions that were never submitted to the people. 
The civil rights of the negro were abandoned to the 
mercy of those who had fought to perpetuate human serv- 
itude. No provision was made for freedmen in the funda- 
mental law, it having been assumed that the new legislatures 
could be trusted to extend justice equally to all classes in the 
community. In a word, those were disappointed who had 
expected from the conventions a display of civic virtues com- 
mensurate to the occasion. 

The remaining topic, that is, the character of the recon- 
structed governments as well as the spirit and tendency of 
their legislation, may in this place be briefly dismissed. Not, 
indeed, that the subject is unimportant, for it was mainly upon 
this question that the Thirty-ninth Congress justified its re- 
fusal to admit members from the South, and vindicated its 
rigorous treatment of the subjugated States. While an in- 
vestigation of public opinion in that section is essential to a 
correct understanding of legislative action, the full con- 
sideration of the subject belongs properly to a treatise on 



472 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Congressional reconstruction, a theme to which this essay is 
only introductory. For the present purpose, therefore, a 
brief outline must suffice. 

Though the reconstruction conventions were correctly re- 
garded as revolutionary, that character would not affect the 
legislatures instituted by their authority if the people con- 
cerned acquiesced in their proceedings. Americans of that 
day were not altogether indifferent to the sacred right of 
revolution, even if the principle was not so highly esteemed 
as formerly. An objection far more serious than the irregular 
origin of these conventions was the spirit which animated 
Southern legislators. 

When the Thirty-ninth Congress convened at its first ses- 
sion members had before them only the merest fragments of 
the mass of testimony subsequently reported by the Joint 
Committee on Reconstruction, though even then they possessed 
evidence of the temper of the Southern mind sufficient, they 
believed, to recommend the most deliberate procedure. It 
would not be difficult to collect from contemporary literature 
proofs of hostility to the General Government sufficient to jus- 
tify the attitude of Congress when it assembled on the 4th of 
December, 1865. From various sources the Northern people 
had caught glimpses of the actual condition of affairs within 
the late Confederacy. These manifestations of unfriendliness 
to the Union were enough to excite suspicion, and, in a 
matter affecting the future welfare of a great and powerful 
nation, suspicion is a just ground for inquiry. 

The alacrity with which the Southern people rushed to 
battle, as well as the vigor with which they prosecuted the 
war, was a phenomenon not more remarkable than the una- 
nimity and promptness with which they apparently acquiesced 
in the result. It was long before the people of the North could 
believe that the rebellion was anything more than a leaders' 
insurrection, and they could not easily be persuaded after its 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 473 

close that those who had fought so desperately to destroy, were 
sincere in their professions of loyalty to, the Union. It was not 
unnatural, therefore, that the late adversaries of the South 
would look with suspicion on her instant submission. With 
few exceptions Southern statesmen seemed desirous of effect- 
ing an early reunion. While various reasons might be as- 
signed to explain this dutiful and almost unlimited obedience, 
it is certain that the argument chiefly relied upon by the pro- 
visional governors was that it was only by such a course that 
they could hope soon to be relieved of the presence among 
them of Yankee soldiers. Apprehension that more burden- 
some conditions might be imposed by Stevens and other 
radical leaders in Congress was, perhaps, not altogether with- 
out influence in producing this general acquiescence in the 
policy of the President.^ As every citizen who engaged in 
rebellion had forfeited both his life and his estate, it would 
be prudent temporarily to conceal any feeling of resentment, 
or any desire of revenge. These considerations were not 
without influence on the conduct of both the leaders and the 
people. With the quick upgrowth, however, of a feeling of 
personal safety, encouraged, no doubt, by a lavish distribu- 
tion of pardons, and with an expectation, not unfounded, that 
reconciliation would speedily be followed by either a restora- 
tion of, or indemnity for, confiscated property, this policy of 
conformity would vanish. Thus under exterior tranquillity 
rankled bitter memories of disaster and defeat nourishing a 
state of unrest which even the unquestioned influence of their 
late commanders could not always keep from expressing itself 
in acts of violence. However, as Henry Winter Davis had 
foretold, the Southern population generally put on the seemly 
garb of peace and observed the form of holding elections. 

*See Why The Solid South? pp. 9-10, for an ingenious explanation of 
the unanimity and promptness with which the Presidential policy of re- 
construction was accepted by the South. 



474 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Notwithstanding that many of their most enlightened citi- 
zens recommended, and that their most trusted leaders en- 
joined, submission to the new order, the transition from a 
state of hostility was marked even at the outset by acts of 
the highest indiscretion. Nor were these confined to irre- 
sponsible individuals whose utterances might have been justly 
regarded as the momentary inspiration of passion. Some of 
the acts referred to were the deliberate convictions of legisla- 
tive bodies, and, as these measures appear to have escaped 
criticism, they may fairly be supposed to reflect the sentiments 
of the South. In the circumstances this was especially un- 
fortunate, postponing as it did the day of peace and recon- 
ciliation; it afforded also a decent pretext to the " Radicals," 
if they desired one, for excluding the Southern delegations 
from Congress. It justified inquiry, and investigation was 
fatal to Southern claims of universal submission. 

Though the exclusion of representatives undoubtedly in- 
tensified, it did not occasion the change in Southern feeling, 
for the Mississippi measures, presently to be noticed, were 
passed before the meeting of Congress. Acts of frequent 
occurrence tended to confirm the worst fears of that 
body, and long before the Joint Committee had completed 
their labors they were supplied with new species of vio- 
lence if any description of outrage was lacking to crown 
their indictment. With due allowance for the fact that 
during many years preceding the war outrages were much 
more numerous in the slave than in the free States, it soon 
became apparent that it was unsafe to leave to the jus- 
tice of Southern courts either the few Unionists who had 
remained faithful in that section or the recently enfranchised 
slaves. The estimation in which the former were held ap- 
pears in the fact that in competition for office they were uni- 
formly defeated by ex-Confederate candidates, sometimes by 
unpardoned, and even unrepentant ones. The feeling toward 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 475 

freedmen was one of extreme bitterness. Overlooking 
scattered acts of violence and outrage of which negroes were 
generally, though not always, the victims. Southern hostility 
toward them found unmistakable expression in the November 
legislation of Mississippi. On the 22d of that month was 
enacted a law regulating the relation of master and appren- 
tice in the case of " freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes." 
Among other things this statute provided : 

That it shall be the duty of all . . . civil officers ... in this 
State to report to the probate courts of their respective counties, semi- 
annually, ... all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, under the age 
of eighteen, within their respective counties, beats or districts, who are 
orphans, or whose parent or parents have not the means, or who re- 
fuse to provide for and support said minors, and thereupon it shall be 
the duty of said probate court to order the clerk of said court to ap- 
prentice said minors to some competent and suitable person, on such 
terms as the court may direct, having a particular care to the interest of 
said minors: Provided, That the former owner of said minors shall have 
the preference, when in the opinion of the court, he or she shall be a 
suitable person for that purpose. 

Sec. 2. . . . That the said court shall be fully satisfied that the 
person or persons to whom said minor shall be apprenticed shall be a 
suitable person to have the charge and care of said minor, and fully to 
protect the interest of said minor. The said court shall require the said 
master or mistress to execute bond and security, payable to the State of 
Mississippi, conditioned that he or she shall furnish said minor with suf- 
ficient food and clothing, to treat said minor humanely, furnish medical 
attention in case of sickness, teach or cause to be taught him or her to 
read and write, if under fifteen years old, and will conform to any law 
that may be hereafter passed for the regulation of the duties and relation 
of master and apprentice : Provided, that said apprentice shall be bound 
by indenture, in case of males until they are twenty-one years old, and 
in case of females until they are eighteen years old. 

Sec. 3. , . . That in the management and control of said appren- 
tices, said master or mistress shall have power to inflict such moderate 
corporeal chastisement as a father or guardian is allowed to inflict on his 
or her child or ward at common law: Provided, That in no case shall 
cruel or inhuman punishment be inflicted. 

Sec. 4. . . . That if any apprentice shall leave the employment of 
his or her master or mistress, without his or her consent, said master or 
mistress may pursue and recapture said apprentice, and bring him or her 



476 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

before any justice of the peace of the county, whose duty it shall be to 
remand said apprentice to the service of his or her master or mistress; 
and in the event of a refusal on the part of said apprentice so to return, 
then said justice shall commit said apprentice to the jail of said county, 
on failure to give bond, until the next term of the county court; and it 
shall be the duty of said court, at the first term thereafter, to investigate 
said case, and if the court shall be of opinion that said apprentice left 
the employment of his or her master or mistress without good cause, to 
order him or her to be punished, as provided for the punishment of 
hired freedmen, as may be from time to time provided for by law, for 
desertion, until he or she shall agree to return to his or her master or 
mistress; Provided, that the court may grant continuances, as in other 
cases ; and provided further, that if the court shall believe that said ap- 
prentice had good cause to quit his said master cr mistress, the court 
shall discharge raid apprentice from said indenture, and also enter a 
judgment against the master or mistress, for not more than one hundred 
dollars, for the use and benefit of said appprentice, to be collected on 
execution, as in other cases. 

Sec. 5. . . . That if any person entice away any apprentice from 
his or her master or mistress, or shall knowingly employ an apprentice, 
or furnish him or her food or clothing, without the written consent of his 
or her master or mistress, or shall sell or give said apprentice ardent 
spirits, without such consent, said person so offending shall be deemed 
guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction thereof before 
the county court, be punished as provided for the punishment of persons 
enticing from their employer hired freedmen, free negroes or mulattoes.' 



In the matter of apprenticing minors it will be observed 
that the former owner, when a person satisfactory to the 
court, was to have the preference; in the event of his death 
his widow or other member of his family was, if deemed 
suitable, to have the preference in re-apprenticing the minor. 
When there was no record testimony of the date of birth, 
judges of county courts were empowered to fix the age of 
the minor. The act was to go into force immediately after 
its passage.^ 

The act of November 25, conferring civil rights on 
emancipated slaves, provided: 

* Laws of Mississippi, pp. 86-88. ' Ibid., pp. 89-90. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 477 

That all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes may sue and be sued, 
implead and be impleaded in all the courts of law and equity of this 
State, and may acquire personal property and choses in action, by de- 
scent or purchase, and may dispose of the same, in the same manner, and 
to the same extent that white persons may ; Provided, that the provisions 
of this section [i] shall not be so construed as to allow any freedman, 
free negro or mulatto, to rent or lease any lands or tenements, except 
in incorporated towns or cities in which places the corporate authorities 
shall control the same. 



Sec. 5. . . . That every freedman, free negro and mulatto, shall, 
on the second Monday of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
six, and annually thereafter, have a lawful home or employment, and 
shall have written evidence thereof, as follows, to wit : if living in any in- 
corporated city, town or village, a license from the mayor thereof, and if 
living outside of any incorporated city, town or village, from the mem- 
ber of the board of police of his beat, authorizing him or her to do 
irregular and job work, or a written contract, as provided in section six 
of this act, which licenses may be revoked for cause, at any time, by the 
authority granting the same. 

Sec. 6. . . . That all contracts for labor made with freedmen, free 
negroes and mulattoes, for a longer period than one month shall be in 
writing and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free negro 
or mulatto, by a beat, city or county officer, or two disinterested white 
persons of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which 
each party shall have one ; and said contracts shall be taken and held as 
entire contracts, and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer, 
before the expiration of his term of service, without good cause he shall 
forfeit his wages for that year, up to the time of quitting. 

Sec. 7. . . . That every civil officer shall, and every person may 
arrest and carry back to his or her legal employer any freedman, free 
negro or mulatto, who shall have quit the service of his or her em- 
ployer before the expiration of his or her term of service without good 
cause, and said officer and person shall be entitled to receive for arresting 
and carrying back every deserting employee aforesaid, the sum of five 
dollars, and ten cents per mile from the place of arrest to the place of de- 
livery, and the same shall be paid by the employer, and held as a set-off 
for so much against the wages of said deserting employee: Provided, 
that said arrested party after being so returned may appeal to a justice 
of the peace or member of the board of the police of the county, who on 
notice to the alleged employer, shall try summarily whether said ap- 
pellant is legally employed by the alleged employer and has good cause 
to quit said employer ; either party shall have the right of appeal to the 
county court, pending which the alleged deserter shall be remanded to the 



478 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

alleged employer, or otherwise disposed of as shall be right and just, and 
the decision of the county court shall be final. 

Sec. 8. . . . That upon affidavit made by the employer of any freed- 
man, free negro or mulatto, or other credible person, before any justice 
of the peace or member of the board of police, that any freedman, free 
negro or mulatto, legally employed by said employer, has illegally de- 
serted said employment, such justice of the peace or member of the 
board of police, shall issue his warrant or warrants, returnable before 
himself, or other such officer, directed to any sheriff, constable or special 
deputy, commanding him to arrest said deserter and return him or her to 
said employer, and the like proceedings shall be had as provided in the pre- 
ceding section ; and it shall be lawful for any officer to whom such war- 
rant shall be directed to execute said warrant in any county of this State, 
and that said warrant may be transmitted without indorsement to any like 
officer of another county, to be executed and returned as aforesaid, and 
the said employer shall pay the cost of said warrants and arrest and re- 
turn, which shall be set oflf for so much against the wages of said deserter. 

Sec. g. . . . That if any person shall persuade or attempt to per- 
suade, entice or cause any freedman, free negro or mulatto, to desert 
from the legal employment of any person, before the expiration of his or 
her term of service, or shall knowingly employ any such deserting freed- 
man, free negro or mulatto, or shall knowingly give or sell to any such 
deserting freedman, free negro or mulatto, any food, raiment or other 
thing, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction 
shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars and not more than two 
hundred dollars and the costs, and if said fine and costs shall not be im- 
mediately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not exceeding two 
months' imprisonment in the county jail, and he or she shall moreover 
be liable to the party injured in damages: Provided, if any person shall, 
or shall attempt to persuade, entice, or cause any freedman, free negro 
or mulatto, to desert from any legal employment of any person with the 
view to employ said freedman, free negro or mulatto, v/ithout the limits 
of this State, such person, on conviction, shall be fined not less than fifty 
dollars and not more than five hundred dollars and costs, and if said 
fine and costs shall not be immediately paid, the court shall sentence said 
convict to not exceeding six months' imprisonment in the county jail. 

This arbitrary and cruel act, wholly inconsistent with a 
state of personal freedom, by forbidding the lease to freed- 
men, free negroes and mulattoes of either lands or tenements 
outside of cities, not only made of the emancipated slaves a 
landless and homeless class, but deprived them of all hope of 
rising out of that condition. On the second Monday of 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 479 

January, 1866, less than two months after the passage of this 
act, and annually thereafter, they were required to have a 
lawful home or employment, and to possess written evidence 
thereof. This requirement extended to the doing of even 
irregular and job work, and a written contract for all labor 
for a longer period than one month. If the laborer, without 
good cause, left the service of his employer before the expira- 
tion of his term, he forfeited all wages for that year up to 
the time of quitting. As the freedmen were wholly without 
representation in the State judiciary, the master class could 
in every instance determine the sufficiency of the cause. The 
intermarriage of the races was made a felony, and the white 
or the black person convicted of that crime was to be con- 
fined in the State penitentiary for life.^ Southern whites had 
no objection to the personal attendance, even in first-class 
railway coaches, of colored servants, but as other than a serv- 
ant, the freedman was considered exceedingly obnoxious, 
and this sentiment was enacted immediately before either of 
the statutes mentioned, into a law which excluded negroes 
from riding in cars of the first class.^ 

There was some apprehension lest this and similar legisla- 
tion would lead to bloody outbreaks. The colored race gen- 
erally was growing distrustful and discontented. The fear 
of violence was probably not unconnected with the passage 
of a law approved November 29, which provided : 

Sec. I. . . . That no freedman, free negro or mulatto, not in the 
military service of the United States Government, and not Hcensed so 
to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry 
fire-arms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or bowie-knife, and on 
conviction thereof, in the county court, shall be punished by fine, not ex- 
ceeding ten dollars, and pay the costs of such proceedings, and all such 
arms or ammunition shall be forfeited to the informer, and it shall be 
the duty of every civil and military officer to arrest any freedman, free 

' Laws of Mississippi, 1865, pp. 82-86. 
* Ibid., p. 231. 



48o LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

negro or mulatto, found with any such arms or ammunition, and cause 
him or her to be committed for trial in default of bail. 

Sec. 2. . . . That any freedman, free negro or mulatto, committing 
riots, routs, affrays, trespasses, malicious mischief and cruel treatment to 
animals, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, language or acts, or as- 
saults on any person, disturbance of peace, exercising the function of a 
minister of the Gospel without a license from some regularly organized 
church, vending spirituous or intoxicating liquors, or committing any 
other misdemeanor, the punishment of which is not specifically provided 
for by law, shall, upon conviction thereof, in the county court, be fined 
not less than ten dollars and not more than one hundred dollars, and 
may be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty 
days. 

Sec. 3. . . . That if any white person shall sell, lend or give to any 
freedman, free negro or mulatto, any fire-arms, dirk or bowie-knife, or 
ammunition, or any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, such person or 
persons so offending, upon conviction thereof, in the county court of his 
or her county, shall be fined, not exceeding fifty dollars, and may be im- 
prisoned at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty days. . . . 

Sec. 4. . , . That all the penal and criminal laws now in force in 
this State, defining offences, and prescribing the mode of punishment for 
crimes and misdemeanors committed by slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, 
be and the same are hereby re-enacted, and declared to be in full force 
and effect, against freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, except so far as 
the mode and manner of trial and punishment have been changed or 
altered by law. 

Sec. 5. . . . That if any freedman, free negro or mulatto, convicted 
of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or 
refuse, for the space of five days after conviction, to pay the fine and 
costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other 
officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and 
all costs, and take such convict for the shortest time.* 

Though the General Government was solemnly pledged to 
guarantee the entire freedom of the negro, he was completely 
disarmed by these statutes, which were to be administered by 
men who had been but recently serving the Confederate cause. 
The purpose of the last measure is rendered clear by Section 4, 
which reenacted against freedmen all the penal and criminal 
laws that had applied to slaves. It revived, in short, the black 
code of ante bellum times. 

* Laws of Mississippi, 1865, pp. 165-167. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 481 

Persons convicted of vagrancy, under an amendatory act, 
approved November 24, 1865, were subject to a fine not ex- 
ceeding one hundred dollars and costs, besides a maximum 
imprisonment of ten days. The first section, which defined 
who were vagrants, was general in its application. The pro- 
visions especially aflfecting freedmen were the following: 

Sec. 2. . . . That all freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes in this 
State, over the age of eighteen years, found on the second Monday in 
January, 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or 
found unlawfully assembling themselves together either in the day or 
night time, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free 
negroes or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free negroes 
or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication 
with a freedwoman, free negro or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants, 
and on conviction thereof shall be fined in the sum of not exceeding, in 
the case of a freedman, free negro or mulatto, fifty dollars, and a white 
man two hundred dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, 
the free negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding 
six months. 

Sec. 5. . . . That all fines and forfeitures collected under the pro- 
visions of this act shall be paid into the county treasury for general 
county purposes, and in case any freedman, free negro or mulatto, shall 
fail for five days after the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon him 
or her for violation of any of the provisions of this act, to pay the same, 
that it shall be, and is hereby made the duty of the sheriff of the proper 
county to hire out said freedman, free negro or mulatto, to any persons 
who will, for the shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and 
all costs : Provided, a preference shall be given to the employer, if there 
be one, in which case the employer shall be entitled to deduct and retain 
the amount so paid from the wages of such freedman, free negro or 
mulatto, then due or to become due; and in case such freedman, free 
negro or mulatto cannot be hired out, he or she may be dealt with as a 
pauper.* 

No extended knowledge of human affairs is necessary to 

perceive that, by a rigorous enforcement of these laws, the 

great mass of freedmen could be easily restored to a state of 

practical servitude during the season when their labor was 

* Laws of Mississippi, 1865, pp. 90-93. 



482 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

desirable, and that for the remainder of the year their condi- 
tion would be little better than that of the pauper. That the 
two races were regarded as equal before the law will scarcely 
be contended. An act approved December i made it a mis- 
demeanor in certain cases for either a white or a black man 
to hunt hogs or other stock upon any lands other than his 
own; the white man was liable, on conviction, to a fine of 
from $100 to $500, or imprisonment from one to three 
months in the county jail, or both, at the discretion of the 
court. For the same offence no imprisonment was provided 
in the case of freedmen, and the fine was fixed between $10 
and $20. The latter, however, could be hired at public out- 
cry to the lowest bidder who would pay the fine and cost. 
The employer, it was provided, was to have the preference 
in hiring.* 

The Legislature first to meet under the reformed govern- 
ment not only expressed for the people of Mississippi no 
profound regret for resisting the Federal authority, but left 
no doubt in what estimation it held those who fought for 
Southern independence by releasing ex- Confederate soldiers 
from indictments for misdemeanors committed before the 
war.^ In perfect harmony with the spirit of this act of oblivion 
was one which changed the name of Jones County to that of 
Davis, and the name of Ellisville in the same county to Lees- 
burg.^ This, it should be observed, was only three days 
before the meeting of Congress. 

This legislation, by no means the most severe enacted 
under the new governments, marks in Southern sentiment a 
reaction no less unexpected than the complete and almost in- 
stantaneous submission following the surrender of Johnston. 
The sudden change in opinion has been ingeniously and even 

* Laws of Mississippi, 1865, pp. 199-200. 

* Ibid., pp. 210-21 1. 

* Ibid., p. 240. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 483 

absurdly accounted for. In the latter class of explanations 
may be included the notion that the people of the South were 
exasperated by the interference of Congress, that body, as 
already mentioned, not having convened till after the passage 
of the obnoxious laws. On the other hand, it was not gener- 
ally known, even in Mississippi, that the President in the 
work of reorganization had resolved to ignore the coordinate 
political branch of Government; he had, indeed, fairly signi- 
fied to Governor Sharkey the position that he intended to 
assume, but his communication to that official, which was 
never designed for publication, was not immediately circu- 
lated through the State; the knowledge, therefore, that the 
Executive had concluded to oppose the policy of Congress 
could not have been a factor in disturbing the brief repose of 
the seceding States, and we must seek elsewhere for the cause. 
In many of the insurgent commonwealths rebellion had in- 
volved almost every citizen in the guilt of treason, almost 
every estate in the liability to confiscation. The President and 
his advisers hoped by a generous distribution of pardons to 
win the esteem and confidence of this numerous and influen- 
tial class, and to leave to " Radical " members of Congress 
the ungrateful office of punishment. This policy contributed 
to awaken the undaunted spirit of the South, and was, no 
doubt, an element in unsettling the conditions that prevailed 
after the surrender. Northern magnanimity, which was con- 
tent to regard the defeat of secession as sufficient discipline 
for the rebellious States, and the attitude of the Democratic 
party were also important influences in misleading the South. 
More responsible for the reaction, however, than any of these 
was the unsatisfactory administration of the Freedmen's 
Bureau. The testimony of General Grant can be cited to 
prove that, while accomplishing much that was desirable, this 
institution was retarding somewhat the progress of recon- 
struction. In a hurried tour of the late Confederate States 



484 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

he had observed that it was not conducted with good judg- 
ment or economy, and remarked in his report to the President 
that " the belief widely spread among the freedmen of the 
Southern States, that the lands of their former owners will, 
at least in part, be divided among them, has come from the 
agents of this bureau. This belief is seriously interfering 
with the willingness of the freedmen to make contracts for 
the coming year. . . . Many, perhaps the majority, of 
the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau advise the freedmen 
that by their own industry they must expect to live. To this 
end they endeavor to secure employment for them, and to 
see that both contracting parties comply with their engage- 
ments. In some instances, I am sorry to say, the freedman's 
mind does not seem to be disabused of the idea that a freed- 
man has the right to live without care or provision for the 
future. The effect of the belief in division of lands is idle- 
ness and accumulation in camps, towns, and cities." * 

Though its management was open to criticism, the neces- 
sity for the existence of the bureau, to afford at least tempo- 
rary protection to the newly enfranchised, was perceived and 
acknowledged by the General. It probably accorded well 
with the political aspirations of bureau agents to create in 
the minds of freedmen a belief that the Government would 
give to each of them " forty acres of land and a mule "; for 
this expectation would be a pledge of allegiance to the Federal 
representative, without the approval of whom no negro could 
seriously hope to secure so enviable a start in his career of 
freedom. 

That confusion would follow the violent overthrow of a 
long-established industrial system was to be expected, and it 
was not unnatural for the South to ascribe to the influence 
of bureau agents much of the mischief inseparable from im- 
mediate emancipation. While the complaints of the late in- 
* Ann. Cycl., 1866, p. 132. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 485 

surgents were commonly considered with deference, it was 
scarcely to be expected that they would not sometimes be 
despised, and it would be easy to impute to their discontent 
every outrage reported to the officers of the bureau or the 
commanders of the posts. Though Federal representatives 
as a rule labored faithfully to restore and preserve order, it 
would be singular if some of them, assuming the arrogant 
manner of conquerors, did not occasionally depart from that 
system of conciliation which the generous nature of Mr. Lin- 
coln had adopted. 

These were among the causes of the Southern reaction. 
It is no justification of these severe and even cruel enactments 
to show, as Mr. Herbert has done, that similar laws dis- 
graced the statute books of many Northern States. In the 
settlement then in progress the Southern people conceded 
nothing of importance that was not won in the war, and if 
they were as sincere in their desire for reunion as some writers 
contend, they should not have feared the paradox of improv- 
ing by their example the ancient legislation of the free States, 
or have been alarmed at the innovation of reducing to prac- 
tice the principles of the Declaration of Independence. 

It is not to be denied that there was considerable ground 
for complaint because of the influence of many employees of 
the bureau in demoralizing the Southern system of labor, but 
the further punishment of a race that had been trodden down 
by oppressive generations does not commend itself as either 
a humane or an enlightened remedy; besides, the South was 
greatly indebted to the fidelity of the negro, who during the 
war possessed, without abusing, the opportunity as well as the 
capacity for mischief. On the other hand, there was some 
obligation to Northern men for their magnanimity, and under 
wiser counsels their wishes, and even their prejudices, would 
have been respected. In the victorious section public opinion, 
then in the formative stage, was watching anxiously the 



486 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

progress and the proceedings of the new governments. Ex- 
cept a few extremists, the voters of the loyal States did not 
dream at that time, as was persistently asserted at the South, 
of forcing negro suffrage on the rebellious States. They 
did, however, desire to see embodied in the new State con- 
stitutions such provisions as would establish before the law 
the equality of all classes. 

While the policy of President Johnson did not altogether 
escape criticism at the South, so general and so prompt 
was the acquiescence in his plan, that when Congress con- 
vened nearly all the States recently in rebellion had remodeled 
their governments and elected members of Congress who 
were at the national capital waiting to be admitted to seats. 
Without separately considering the new establishments, they 
may be described concisely and with sufficient accuracy as 
governments differing but little from those extinguished by 
the fall of the Confederacy. The members of the former, it 
is true, had taken an oath of allegiance, and the influence of 
that act upon their conduct will presently be noticed. Though 
it certainly was not the original intention, and appears never 
to have become the fixed purpose of Mr. Johnson to entrust 
to enemies of the Government the work of restoring the in- 
surgent States, the result of his endeavors was that recon- 
struction was left almost exclusively in the hands of those 
who had attempted to destroy the Union. It was precisely 
such a contingency that Mr. Lincoln had in mind when he 
declared in his message of December 8, 1863, that, " An 
attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government, 
constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very 
element against whose hostility and violence it is to be pro- 
tected, is simply absurd." ^ 

This deliberate statement, as well as the subsequent admin- 
istrative acts of Mr. Lincoln, sufficiently disposes of the no- 

* Ann. Cycl., 1863, pp. 780-781. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 487 

tion that he favored a rather loose system of reconstruction. 
Without attempting to distinguish between theories really 
identical, there was still a considerable difference in the re- 
organization effected under the two Executives. The condi- 
tions which confronted the President and Congress in De- 
cember, 1865, could have arisen only from disregarding the 
principle laid down by Mr. Lincoln. From his solemn and 
reiterated declarations there can be little doubt that he would 
have rejected without hesitation any system of which the 
first fruits were little more than a nullification of his decree 
of emancipation. 

Notwithstanding his tireless threats of severity, we can 
easily perceive in the reorganization directed by Mr. Johnson, 
a noticeable falling back from the Executive plan of December, 
1863, as announced and enforced by his predecessor. Nor did 
this retrogression proceed from the greater humanity, but 
rather from the greater weakness of the new President. Even 
in the matter of fealty there was a difference; for while the 
conflict was still doubtful, the taking of an oath of allegiance to 
the General Government was a serious step for the Southern 
Unionist, because the record thereafter singled him out, if not 
for destruction, at least for annoyance, or for punishment by 
the friends of secession, and, perhaps, the oath then effected 
some such object as it was designed to accomplish. When 
war had ceased, however, there was no longer a choice of 
sides, and thenceforth universal swearing as an instrument 
of government became practically worthless. It was not re- 
garded, at all events, as an efficient security for the future. 
Mr. Johnson probably continued to exact oaths of allegiance 
because they were formerly of value in distinguishing the 
friends from the enemies of the Government. Though pro- 
fessing the same general opinion on the subject of amnesty, 
the principles on which the two Presidents granted pardons 
were sufficiently distinct. 



488 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

We have seen that President Johnson, who had once de- 
clared that " rebels " should take a back seat in the work of 
reconstruction, so far changed his opinion that he subse- 
quently said the people must be trusted in the restoration of 
their governments; he likewise modified his early impressions 
as to the permanence of the establishments instituted under 
his predecessor, for it was his original opinion that those 
governments were merely provisional in their nature, and 
would require the confirmation or the approval of Congress. 
Ultimately, however, he came to regard himself as the judge 
of their sufficiency. The evidence of this is conclusive. In a 
telegram of July 14, 1865, to Governor Sharkey, Secretary 
Seward said : 

" The government of the State [Mississippi] will be pro- 
visional only until the civil authorities shall be restored, with 
the approval of Congress. Meanwhile military authority 
cannot be withdrawn." ^ 

If it be contended that Mr. Seward made this important 
declaration upon his personal responsibility the argument 
fails, because in a dispatch to Governor Marvin, of Florida, 
dated September 12, 1865, nearly two months later, the Secre- 
;^::ry of State repeated the substance of the message in lan- 
guage even more explicit. On that occasion he said : " It 
must, however, be distinctly understood that the restoration 
to which your proclamation refers will be subject to the de- 
cision of Congress." ^ 

The determination of President Johnson to retain the mem- 
bers of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet would indicate his original in- 
tention of applying to the subjugated States the system 
adopted by his predecessor. The influence which led to the 
modification of the method of enforcing without abandoning 
the principles underlying that plan it is not easy to discover. 

* Gorham's Life of Stanton, Vol. II. p. 255. 
» McPherson's Pol. Hand-Book, 1868, p. 25. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 489 

His change of attitude toward the South has been variously 
explained. By Mr. Blaine it has been ascribed to the flattery 
of Southern leaders, as well as to the personal influence of 
Secretary Seward, whose wide culture, and consequent hu- 
manity, would favor a policy of conciliation. Without intend- 
ing to underestimate the insinuating address of the New 
York statesman it may be observed that his powers of persua- 
sion appear to have exerted themselves with most success in 
the direction of the President's inclination. The attention of 
Southern leaders, a class of men by whom the President had 
hitherto been ignored, deserves, however, to be noticed in any 
enumeration of even the probable cause of the change. An- 
other theory has it that Mr. Johnson both feared and hated 
several of the leading Republicans, because of their connection 
with a movement to procure his resignation from the Vice- 
Presidency, a station which, they believed, he had disgraced by 
appearing in an intoxicated state to take the oath of office. 
His desire to punish those who had constituted themselves 
custodians of the national dignity, it is asserted, was a princi- 
pal motive in his surrender to the South. A more reasonable 
explanation of the change which occurred in the President's 
attitude toward his own section is that offered by Dr. 
Chadsey, who regards Mr. Johnson as an inconsistent advo- 
cate of State Sovereignty.^ In this principle he believed as 
firmly as Jefferson Davis himself, though unlike the Confed- 
erate chieftain he refused, by stopping short of secession, to 
accept its logical results. Nearly all his administrative acts 
are those which might have been expected from a Democrat 
of the strict construction school, and Andrew Johnson never 
professed allegiance to any other political party. 

The governments of which the reorganization has been 
described in the preceding pages continued in operation until 
suspended by the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867. 
* President Johnson and Reconstruction, pp. 33-34. 



490 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

Except Texas all these establishments, as previously observed, 
had sent members to the Thirty-ninth Congress. Their claims 
to seats, it is well known, were completely ignored, and a 
select body, consisting of nine members from the lower and 
six from the upper House, was appointed to investigate the 
condition of the late Confederate States, and to report whether 
any of them were entitled to representation in either branch 
of Congress. With the conclusions of the celebrated Joint 
Committee this essay is not concerned further than to ob- 
serve that on the recommendation of the majority the Tennes- 
see delegation was admitted on the 24th of July, 1866. Long 
before that event, however, the task of restoring the Union 
had been taken altogether out of Executive hands. 

If we reflect how much swifter in a political organism is the 
progress of ruin than that of repair, and consider that four 
years had been abandoned to the destruction and disorders of 
civil war, we cannot but be surprised at the attempt of the 
President, single-handed, to adapt and execute in less than 
three months a series of measures designed to restore tran- 
quillity and revive prosperity among the impoverished in- 
habitants of a wasted country. In this view his failure in the 
work of reconstruction can excite little astonishment. One 
reason for this precipitate action was a desire to reunite the 
sections before the meeting of Congress, and it was so far 
a praiseworthy if not a prudent course to adopt. But had 
he proceeded ever so leisurely there would still have existed 
undoubted obstacles to success. To say that he was lacking 
in the tact of his predecessor, that he was naturally of an 
obstinate and even of a combative disposition, and that he 
possessed defects, both of temper and judgment, would 
be merely to repeat a few trite observations.^ Conditions 
were rapidly changing, but with Mr. Johnson, conditions 

* In this connection his repudiation of the Sherman-Johnston agree- 
ment will occur to the reader. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 491 

passed for almost nothing, though in reality circumstances 
make legislative acts beneficial or otherwise. Like the meas- 
ures of the Thirty-eighth Congress for restoring the Union, 
those of Mr. Johnson may be carefully examined without dis- 
covering any considerable traces of originality. Indeed, 
if we except President Lincoln, this entire period seems to 
have been somewhat lacking in constructive statesmanship, 
though no branch of the public service was without officials of 
integrity, judgment and ability. 

In the course of the preceding pages the inaugurals, the 
messages, the letters and other communications of Mr. Lin- 
coln have been freely quoted to show his opinions on all of 
the principal and most of the subordinate phases of recon- 
struction. To complete the design of this inquiry, there 
remains to be considered but a single topic related to the 
main theme, namely, the limitations of the Presidential plan 
for restoring the Union. Many of these defects having been 
incidentally noticed, a general recapitulation does not appear 
to be required, and the subject, it is believed, may be appro- 
priately concluded by an examination of those features of 
the Executive system which the narrative has not hitherto 
sufficiently emphasized. 

This summary disclaims, however, any intention of at- 
tempting the absurdity of testing the statesmanship of Abra- 
ham Lincoln by contrasting a method of reconstruction pro- 
posed in 1863 with that deemed adequate by Congress to meet 
the changed conditions of 1867. We may, indeed, fairly and 
even profitably compare the sentiments of the two political 
departments in the summer of 1864, when, for the first time 
during the war, they were arrayed in opposition on a funda- 
mental policy of civil administration. Because of its variance 
with received notions of representative government, the so- 
called " ten per cent, principle " will be first considered. 

The proportion of the political people that Mr.. Lincoln 



492 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

offered to recognize as constituting a State encountered, prob- 
ably, more opposition than any single feature of his plan. 
While its merits and its defects were equally evident, the lat- 
ter, as might be expected, were given by its adversaries the 
place of prominence in all their criticisms. Exception was 
taken as well to the legality as to the expediency of the prin- 
ciple. The former has been fully discussed, and on that sub- 
ject all that need be observed is that President Lincoln be- 
lieved it constitutional to preserve the Union, and every meas- 
ure conducive to that end he regarded as lawful. 

On the question of expediency, however, several considera- 
tions suggest themselves. Apart from its repugnance to the 
American idea of majority rule, its palpable weakness was 
that governments founded on the consent of a minimum pro- 
portion of the electors would require the support of Federal 
power. Here occurs the question, did the forces thus en- 
gaged so greatly impair the efficiency of the main armies as 
sensibly tO' retard the work of destroying the enemy? It 
cannot be denied that there were occasions when a few addi- 
tional regiments could have been employed to advantage; 
but neither the reverses nor the disasters of the Union armies 
were caused by lack of numbers so much as by the need early 
in the war of commanders of military genius. On the other 
hand, the troops who sustained the new governments, besides 
weakening the Confederacy, were affording protection to or- 
ganizations that otherwise could not have been recruited. 
There is record of not less than sixty-five regiments furnished 
by the States restored during the Presidency of Mr. Lincoln.^ 
But even more important than this gratifying result was 
the influence which the reinstatement of four seceding com- 
monwealths exerted on the attitude of those European powers 

* Strait's Roster of Regimental Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons, p. 314. 
This estimate includes all the troops furnished by the new State of West 
Virginia. 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 493 

which had proved early in the conflict their hostility to the 
United States. The " Johnson governments," so-called, were 
never required to furnish any such unquestioned evidence of 
reviving loyalty, and that fact should not be overlooked in 
any comparison of the results accomplished by the two 
Executives. 

Notwithstanding the general existence of a strong opposi- 
tion to minority rule, the revolutionary proceedings in west- 
ern Virginia were sanctioned by every department of Gov- 
ernment. Members from the loyal eastern counties were at 
first admitted to seats in both branches of Congress; their 
successors, however, were in turn refused this indulgence 
until there was presented the novel spectacle of a single Sen- 
ator representing the diminished glory of the Old Dominion. 
Louisiana, too, which for a few days was heard in the lower 
House, was subsequently excluded altogether by the chang- 
ing views of Congress. The revived bill of Wade and Davis 
provided in one of its many forms for recognizing that State 
as well as Arkansas, and even when the extremists obtained 
control of Congress the loyal government organized in Ten- 
nessee was approved by avowed opponents of the Executive 
plan. Mr. Lincoln, indeed, clearly perceived the inherent 
weakness of his system, and no one could have been more 
anxious than he to secure a wider constituency. These facts 
seem to indicate that between him and Congress there was 
not then so wide a gulf as, for partisan purposes, is sometimes 
represented. It is true that there was a difference of prin- 
ciple between the two departments; that there was a powerful 
party in Congress who believed that reconstruction was essen- 
tially a work of peace and, therefore, pertained exclusively to 
the national Legislature. The holders of this view were, 
doubtless, confirmed in their opinion by a conviction that the 
Executive was encroaching on a coordinate branch of gov- 
ernment. 



494 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

The Presidential system as well as the contemporary theory 
of Congress restricted the suffrage of whites, by whom it was 
almost universally engrossed at the foundation of the Repub- 
lic. On the ground of justice and to encourage the cultivation 
of civic virtues among the negroes, Mr. Lincoln would admit 
those qualified to exercise this important privilege. His suc- 
cessor acknowledged in a private communication that for 
party purposes he favored some extension of the elective fran- 
chise to freedmen. Though Congress advanced rapidly to- 
ward negro suffrage, the first essay of that body in the work 
of reconstruction included no provision for conferring on the 
colored race a right to participate in government. By 
Wade and Davis it was not then deemed necessary 
even as a defensive power. Only a few bold innovators, 
considered almost fanatic on the question, were in favor of 
bestowing the right to vote on the multitudes maintained by 
the Freedmen's Bureau; it was not then deemed within the 
commission of the general Government, the teachings of polit- 
ical science were still respected by the majority in Congress, 
and the fruits of victory, it was hoped, could be secured with- 
out a resort to radical measures. 

The form of an oath to support the proclamations and laws 
respecting slavery appeared in the Presidential plan as a con- 
dition indispensable to reinstatement. On this subject the 
difference between the Executive and Congress was merely 
one of degree; for the Wade-Davis bill, doubtless in imitation 
of the Presidential system, imposed terms precedent, and the 
new constitutions were to repudiate the rebel debt, abolish 
slavery and prohibit the higher insurgent officials, civil as 
well as military, from holding the office of governor, from 
serving in the State legislatures and even from voting. 

By its adversaries the plan of Mr. Lincoln was condemned 
for its failure to exact any security for the future beyond the 
oath of allegiance, the telegraphic supervision by the Pres- 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 495 

ident and the power of Congress over the admission of mem- 
bers. This defect the legislative theory endeavored to supply, 
but even the guardianship proposed by Wade and Davis could 
give no assurance that the rebellious communities would not, 
after reinstatement, eliminate by constitutional amendment 
the conditions imposed on their readmission.^ 

*The author believes himself fortunate in being able to place before 
his readers a letter from the pen of Hon. J. B. Henderson, the only sur- 
viving Senator who participated in the debates summarized in chapter 
X., and, so far as the writer is informed, the only living member who 
served in the United States Senate during that eventful period. Coming, 
as it does, from one who supported many of Mr. Lincoln's most cherished 
measures, the letter will be welcomed as a valuable historical document. 
It contrasts forcibly the Presidential plan with the theory of Senator 
Sumner, and though written on August 21, 1901, more than a generation 
after the occurrence of the principal events discussed in this book, it is 
characterized by the clearness and the energy of expression which marked 
even the unpremeditated addresses of the Senator's Congressional career. 
On the subject of reunion he writes as follows: 

"Time, in my judgment, has stamped its approval on Mr. Lincoln's 
views touching the questions of reconstruction during the Civil War. 
He was always calm and judicial. He was philosophical in periods of 
the most intense excitement. He never lost his head, but under all cir- 
cumstances preserved his temper and his judgment. He was not the 
buffoon described by his enemies. On the contrary, he was a wise states- 
man, a learned lawyer, and a conscientious patriot; and, better than all, 
an honest man. 

" The infirmity in Mr. Sumner's theories of reconstruction came from 
the great exuberance of his learning. He ransacked history, ancient 
and modern, for precedents growing out of civil wars. But these pre- 
cedents all antedated the American Constitution. They grew out of 
monarchical systems of government, and had no relation to the repub- 
lican forms created by our Constitution. Under our system there can 
be no suicide of a State. Individual citizens by rebellion and disloyalty 
may forfeit their political rights, but the State as an entity commits no 
treason and forfeits no rights to existence. Under our Constitution the 
State cannot die. It is the duty of the Federal Government to see that 
it does not die— that it shall never cease to exist. If the State be in- 
vaded from without, the duty of the General Government is to protect 
and defend it. If domestic violence threatens the subversion of the local 
government, the nation's duty is to intervene and uphold the hands of 



496 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

However crude we may now consider Mr. Lincoln's sys- 
tem it should not be forgotten that with him the paramount 
consideration was the overthrow of the Confederacy. With 
that purpose all his measures harmonized, and it is scarcely 
critical to examine them from any other point of view. How 
far necessity, which had originally suggested, would subse- 
quently have modified his plan it is now impossible to state. 
Without detracting a particle from his well-won fame it may 
be admitted that his method, which could not have foreseen 
the rapid succession of changes following his death, was but 
indifferently adapted to solve the problem with which Congress 

those who maintain the laws. The trustee of an express trust cannot 
excuse himself to a minority of the beneficiaries because the majority 
repudiate his agency. 

" ' The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a 
republican form of government.' No State government is republican in 
form that does not acknowledge the supremacy of the Federal Constitu- 
tion. This is the essential test of republicanism. No State can enter 
the Union without conforming its Constitution to this supreme organic 
law. And whenever by force or violence, a majority of its citizens un- 
dertake to withdraw the State from its obedience to Federal law and 
to repudiate the sovereignty of the Federal Government, it at once 
becomes the duty of Congress to act. 

" This duty of Congress is not to destroy the State or to declare it a 
suicide, and proceed to administer on its effects. On the contrary, the 
duty clearly is to preserve the State, to restore it to its old republican 
forms. Its duty is not to territorialize the State and proceed to govern 
it as a conquered colony. The duty is not one of demolition, but one of 
restoration. It is not to make a Constitution, but to guarantee that the 
old Constitution or one equally republican in form, and made by the 
loyal citizens of the State, shall be upheld and sustained. 

" If a majority of the people of a State conspire to subvert its republi- 
can forms, that majority may be, and should be, put down by the Federal 
power, while the minority, however few, sustaining republican forms 
may be constitutionally installed as the political power of the State. 

" These, as I understand, were the views of Mr. Lincoln ; and they 
were not the views of Mr. Sumner, as enunciated in his resolutions of 
1862 and advocated by him in his subsequent career in the Senate. 

" A departure from these views gave us the carpet-bag governments 
of the Southern States, and brought upon us divers other evils in our 
ideas and theories of government, whose effects are yet visible." 



CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN 497 

was compelled to deal in 1867; but the measure of permanent 
success which attended the deliberate legislation of that body 
by no means justifies the conclusion that some other system 
would have proved a total failure. With all its immaturity 
the plan of the President was not without its advantages. It 
aimed to restore with as little innovation as possible the Union 
of the Fathers; with some exceptions the natural leaders of 
Southern society were to participate in the work of reorgan- 
ization, and the author of this simple plan approached his 
difficult task in a generous and enlightened spirit. 

On the life and character of Abraham Lincoln an admiring 
generation has exhausted the language of panegyric; the 
terms of censure have been reserved almost exclusively for his 
method of restoring the Union; but neither the critic's ken, 
nor the ambitious phrase of eulogy, nor all the thoughts that 
since his death have dropped from poets' pens affords that clear 
insight into his nature which is unconsciously revealed in the 
simple and beautiful exhortation that concludes his last in- 
augural. The sentiments which immortalize that celebrated 
state paper could have proceeded only from the depths of a 
noble soul — a soul that would have imposed silence on the 
voice of vengeance and would never have consented to the 
revenge of section upon section. In this book an endeavor 
has been made fully to discuss his plan of reconstruction; the 
spirit in which he approached that difficult task is best stated 
in his own generous and patriotic words, with which may be 
fittingly closed this long though interesting inquiry : " With 
malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in 
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and 
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with 
all nations." ^ 

' N. & H. , Vol. X., p. 145. 

THE END. 



APPENDIX A 

THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS 

SENATE 

First session, July 4, 1861, to August 6, 1861. Republicans (31) in 
Roman, Democrats (10) in Italics, Unionists (7) in SMALL CAPITALS, 
vacancies 2. 

Second session, Dec. i, 1862, to Mar. 4, 1864. 

CALIFORNIA.— iT/z7/^« S. Lathatn and James A. McDougall {vice ^ 

E. D. Baker, who died). I K c«.f r-ect' ^ 

CONNECTICUT.— James Dixon and Lafayette S. Foster. >->!om. -^r-^ 

DELAWARE.— James A. Bayard and Willard Satdsbury. O^r^^^^ ~ 

ILLINOIS. — Lyman Trumbull and Orville H. Browning. 

INDIANA.— Henry S. Lane ^xv^Jesse D. ^r/>/i/ (expelled Feb. 5, 1862, 

and was succeeded by Z'rtz//^ 7>/r//i?). ■ . , rt" s-^^ <- cx,^- to =^ 4 

IOWA. — James W. Grimes and James Harlan. T„ ^^ t, A ujrrtUr — 

KANSAS. — James H. Lane and Samuel C. Pomeroy. . ' 

KENTUCKY.— Zrts-arz^j W. Powell and Garrett Davis {vice John 
C. Brecke7iridge, expelled). 

MAINE. — Lot M. Morrill and William Pitt Fessenden, 

MASSACHUSETTS.— Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson. 

MARYLAND. — Anthony Kennedy and James A. Pearce (died Dec. 
20, 1862, and was succeeded by Thomas H. Hicks). 

MICHIGAN.— Zachariah Chandler and Jacob M. Howard. 

MINNESOTA.— //6'«ry M. Rice and Morton S. Wilkinson. 

MISSOURI.— John B. Henderson [vice Trusten Polk, expelled) and 
■ Robert Wilson {vice Waldo Porter Johnson, expelled). 

NEW HAMPSHIRE.— John P. Hale and Daniel Clark. 

NEW YORK.— Preston King and Ira Harris. 

NEW JERSEY.— John C. Ten Eyckand John R. Thovison (died Sept. 
12, 1862, Richard S. Field was temporarily appointed to fill the 
vacancy, and James W. Wall was subsequently elected for the un- 
expired term). 

OHIO.— Benjamin F. Wade and John Sherman {vice Salmon P. Chase, 
who resigned Mar. 6, 1861). 

OREGON.— Edward D. Baker (died Oct. 21, 1861, and was succeeded 
by Benjamin F. Harding) and James W. Nesmith. 

PENNSYLVANIA.— Edgar Cowan and David Wilmot {vice Simon 
Cameron, who resigned in March, 1861). 

RHODE ISLAND.— Henry B. Anthony and James F. Simmons (re- 
signed. Samuel G. Arnold elected to fill the unexpired term). 
499 



500 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION 

VERMONT.— Solomon Foot and Jacob CoUamer. 
VIRGINIA.— Waitman T. Willey and John S. Carlile. 
WISCONSIN.— James R. Doolittle and Timothy O. Howe. 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

CALIFORNIA.— Aaron A. Sargent, Timothy G. Phelps, Frederick F. 
Low. 

CONNECTICUT.— Dwight Loomis, James E. English, Alfred A. 
Burnham, George C, Woodruff. 

DELAWARE.— George P. Fisher. 

ILLINOIS.— Elihu B. Washburne, Isaac N. Arnold, Owen Lovejoy, 
William Kellogg, William A. Richardson, "Jatnes C. Robinson, 
Philip B. Fouke, John A. Logan, 

INDIANA. — John Law, James A. Cravens, William McKee Dunn, 
William S. Holman, George W. Julian, Albert G. Porter, Daniel 
W. Voorhees, Albert S. White, Schuyler Colfax, William Mitchell, 
John P. C. Shanks. 

IOWA. — James F. Wilson, William Vandever. 

KANSAS.— Martin F. Conway. 

KENTUCKY.— James S. Jackson (died in 1862 and was succeeded by 
George H. Yeaman), Henry Grider, Aaron Harding, 
Charles A, Wickliffe, George W. Dunlap, Robert Mal- 
LORY, John J. Crittenden, William H. Wadsworth, John 
W. Menzies, Samuel L. Casey (;uice Mr. Burnett, expelled). 

MAINE.— John N. Goodwin, Charles W. Walton (resigned. Thos. A. 
D. Fessenden elected to fill vacancy), Samuel C. Fessenden, 
Anson P. Morrill, John H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike. 

MARYLAND.— John W. Crisfield, Edwin H. Webster, Corne- 
lius L. L. Leary, Henry May, Francis Thomas, Charles B. 
Calvert. 

MASSACHUSETTS.— Thomas D. Eliot, James Buffinton, Benjamin 
- F. Thomas i(sometimes"classed as a Unionist), Alexander H. Rice, 

.\ ^-*\5. Samuel Hooper, John B. Alley, Daniel W. Gooch, Charles R. Train, 

Goldsmith F. Bailey (died May 8, 1862, and was succeeded by 
Amasa Walker), Charles Delano, Henry L. Dawes. 

MICHIGAN.— Bradley F. Granger, Fernando C. Beaman, Francis W. 
Kellogg, Rowland E. Trowbridge. 

MINNESOTA.— Cyrus Aldrich and William Windom. 

MISSOURI.— Francis P. Blair, jr. (resigned in 1862), James S. Rollins, 
William A. Hall, Elijah H. Norton, Thomas L. Price, John 
S. Phelps, John W. Noell 

NEW HAMPSHIRE.— Gilman Marston, Edward H. Rollins, Thomas 
M. Edwards. 

NEW JERSEY.— John T. Nixon, John L. N. Stratton, William G. 
Steele, George T. Cobb, Nehemiah Perry. 

NEW XO^Yi.— Edward H. Smith, Moses F. Odell, Benjamin Wood, 
James E. Kerrigan, William Wall, Frederick A. Conkling, Elijah 



APPENDIX A 501 

Ward, Isaac C. Delaplaine, Edward Haight, Charles H. Van Wyck, 
John B. Steele, Stephen Baker, Abraham B. Olin, Erastus Corning, 
James B. McKean, William A. Wheeler, Socrates N. Sherman, 
Chauncey Vibbard, Richard Franchot, Roscoe Conkling, R. Hol- 
land Duell, William E. Lansing, Ambrose W. Clark, Charles B. 
Sedgwick, Theodore M, Pomeroy, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Alexander 
S. Diven, Robert B. Van Valkenburg, Alfred Ely, Augustus Frank, 
Burt Van Horn, Elbridge G. Spaulding, Reuben E. Fenton. 

OHIO. — George H. Pendleton, ]o\iXi K. Q\xx\&y, Clement L. Vallandig- 
hant, William Allen, James M. Ashley, Chilton A. W^/nV^, Richard 
A. Harrison, Samuel Shellabarger, Warren P. Noble, Carey A. 
Trimble, Valentine B. Horton, Samuel S. Cox, Samuel T. Worces- 
ter, Harrison G. Blake, Robert H. Nugen, William P. Cutler, James 
R. Morris, Sidney Edgerton, Albert G. Riddle, John Hutchins, 
John A. Bingham. 

OREGON.— George K. Shiel. 

PENNSYLVANIA.— «^?7//a»«^. Lehman, Charles/. Btddle, ]ohn P. 
Verree, William D. Kelley, William Morris Davis, John Hickman, 
Thomas B . Cooper (died April 4, 1862, and was succeeded by John 
D. Stiles), Sydenham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, John W. 
Killinger, James H. Campbell, Hendrick B. Wright, Philip 
Johnson, Galusha A. Grow, James T. Hale, Joseph Baily, Edward 
McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, John Covode, Jesse Lazear, James K. 
Moorhead, Robert McKnight, John W. Wallace, John Patton, 
Elijah Babbitt. 

RHODE ISLAND.— George H. Browne, William P. Sheffield. 

TENNESSEE.— Horace Maynard. 

VERMONT.— Ezekiel P. Walton, Justin S. Morrill, Portus Baxter. 

VIRGINIA.— Charles H. Upton, Edmund Pendleton, William 
G. Brown, Jacob B. Blair, Killian V. Whaley, Joseph E, 
Segar. 

WISCONSIN.— John F. Potter, Luther Hanchett (died Nov. 24, 1862, 
and was succeeded by Walter Mclndoe), A. Scott Sloan. 



DELEGATES FROM TERRITORIES 

COLORADO.— Hiram P. Bennett. 
DAKOTA.— John B. S. Todd. 
NEBRASKA.— Samuel G. Daily. 
NEVADA.— >>^« C. Cradlebaugh. 
NEW MEXICO.— John S. Watts. 
UTAH.— 7^/%« M. Bernhisel. 
WASHINGTON.— James H. Wallace. 



APPENDIX B I 

i; 

THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 

SENATE 

First regular session, Dec. 7, 1863, to July 4, 1864. 
Second session from Dec. 5, 1864, to March 3, 1865. 

CALIFORNIA.— John Conness and James A. McDougall. 
CONNECTICUT.— James Dixon and Lafayette S. Foster. 
DELAWARE. — M^///ar^ SaulsMtry and George Read Riddle {vice 

Senator Bayard, who resigned). 
ILLINOIS. — IViUiam A. Richardson and Lyman Trumbull. 
I^DIK^K.— Thomas A. Hendricks and Henry S. Lane. 
IOWA. — James Harlan and James W. Grimes. 
KANSAS. — Samuel C. Pomeroy and James H. Lane. 
KENTUCKY.— Garrett Davis (Senator Davis is sometimes men- 
tioned as a Democrat) and Lazarus W. Powell. 
MAINE. — Lot M. Morrill and William Pitt Fessenden (resigned in 

1864, and was succeeded by Nathan A. Farwell). 
MASSACHUSETTS.— Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson. 
MARYLAND.— Reverdy Johnson and Thomas H. Hicks (died 

Feb. 13. 1865). 
MICHIGAN.— Zachariah Chandler and Jacob M. Howard. 
MINNESOTA.— Alexander Ramsey and Morton S. Wilkinson. 
MISSOURI. — John B. Henderson (sometimes mentioned as a Unionist) 

and B. Gratz Brown (vice Waldo Porter Johnson, expelled, Robert 

Wilson having been appointed ^r^ tern.). 
NEW HAMPSHIRE.— Daniel Clark and John P. Hale. 
NEW JERSEY. — H^///zaw Wright and John C. Ten Eyck. 
NEW YORK.— Edwin D. Morgan and Ira Harris. 
OHIO. — Benjamin F. Wade and John Sherman. 
OREGON. — Benjamin F. Harding and James IV. Nesmith. 
PENNSYLVANIA. — C//ar/^j R. Buckalew and Edgar Cowan. 
RHODE ISLAND.— William Sprague and Henry B. Anthony. 
VERMONT— Solomon Foot and Jacob Collamer. 
VIRGINIA. — Lemuel J. Bowden and John S. Carlile (sometimes 

mentioned as a Democrat). 
WEST VIRGINIA.— Waitman T. Willey and Peter G. Van Winkle. 
WISCONSIN.— James R. Doolittle and Timothy O. Howe. 
NEVADA.— James W. Nye and William M. Stewart. 
502 



APPENDIX B 503 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

CALIFORNIA.— Thomas B. Shannon, William Higby, Cornelius Cole. 

CONNECTICUT.— Henry C. Deming, James E. English, Augustus 
Brandegee, John H. Hubbard. 

DELAWARE.— Nathaniel B. Smithers. 

ILLINOIS.— Isaac N. Arnold, John F. Farnsworth, Elihu B. Wash- 
burne, Charles M. Harris, Owen Lovejoy (died Mar. 25, 1864, and 
was succeeded by Ebon C. IngersoU), Jesse O. Norton, John R. 
Eden, John T. Stuart, Lewis W. Ross, Anthony L. Knapp, James 
C. Robinson, William R. Morrisoti, William J. Allen, James C. 
Allen. 

INDIANA. — John Lata, James A. Cravetis, Henry W. Harrington, 
William S. Holman, George W, Julian, Ebenezer Dumont, Daniel 
W. Voorhees, Godlove S. Orth, Schuyler Colfax, Joseph K. Edger- 
ton, James F. McDowell. 

IOWA.— James F. Wilson, Hiram Price, William B. Allison, J. B. 
Grinnell, John A. Kasson, A. W. Hubbard. 

KANSAS.— A. Carter Wilder. 

KENTUCKY.— Lucien Anderson, George H. Yeaman, Henry 
Grider, Aaron Harding, Robert Mallory, Green Clay Smith, 
Brutus J. Clay, William H. Randall, William H. Wadsworth. 

MAINE. — Lorenzo D. M. Sweat, Sidney Perham, James G. Blaine, 
John H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike. 

MARYLAND,— John A. J. Cresswell, Edwin H.Webster, Henry Winter 
Davis, Francis Thomas, Beftjamin G. Harris. 

MASSACHUSETTS.— Thomas D. Eliot, Oakes Ames, Alexander H. 
Rice, Samuel Hooper, John B. Alley, Daniel W. Gooch, George S. 
Boutwell, John D. Baldwin, William B. Washburn, Henry L. Dawes. 

MICHIGAN. — Fernando C. Beaman, Charles Upson, John W. Long- 
year, Francis W. Kellogg, Augustus C. Baldwin, John F. Driggs. 

MINNESOTA.— William Windom, Ignatius Donnelly. 

MISSOURI.— Francis P. Blair, jr. (seat successfully contested by 
Samuel Knox of St. Louis), Henry T. Blow, John G. Scott, Joseph 
W. McClurg, Sempronius H. Boyd, Austin A. King, Benjamin 
F. Loan, William A. Hall, James S. Rollins. 

NEW HAUV^UIKE.— Daniel Marcy, Edward H. Rollins, James W. 
Patterson. 

NEW JERSEY.— John F. Starr, George Middleton, William G. Steele, 
Andrew J. Rogers, Nehemiah Perry. 

NEW YOV.K.— Henry G. Stebbins (resigned in 1864 and was succeeded 
by Dwight Townsend), Martin Kalbjleisch, Moses F, Odell, Benja- 
min Wood, Fernando Wood, Elijah Ward, John W. Chanler, James 
Brooks, Anson Herrick, William Radford, Charles H. Winfield, 
Homer A. Nelsott, John B. Steele, John V. L. Pruyn, John A. 
Griswold, Orlando Kellogg, Calvin T. Hulburd, James M. Marvin, 
Samuel F, Miller, Ambrose W. Clark, Francis Kernan, DeWitt C. 
Littlejohn, Thomas T. Davis, Theodore M. Pomeroy, Daniel Morris. 
Giles W. Hotchkiss, Robert Van Valkenburg, Freeman Clark, 



o^^^ 



D^3 



504 LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECOJsFSTRUCTION 

V" 

Augustus Frank, John B. Ganson, Reuben E, Fenton (resigned 
Dec. 10, 1864). 

OHIO. — George H. Pendleton, Alexander Long, Robert C. Schenck, 
/. F. Mc Kinney, Frank C. Le Blond, Chilton A. White, Samuel S. 
Cox, William Johnson, Warren P. Noble, James M. Ashley, Wells 
A. Hutchins, William E. Fink, John O^Neill, George Bliss, James 
R. Morris, Joseph W. White, Ephraim R. Eckley, Rufus P. 
Spaulding, James A. Garfield. 

OREGON.— John R. McBride. 

PENNSYLVANIA.— 6aw2/t'/ 7. Randall, Charles O'Neill, Leonard 
Myers, William D. Kelley, M. Russell Thayer, John D. Stiles, 
John M. Broomall, Sydenham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, 
Myer Strouse, Philip Johnson, Charles Dennison, Henry W. Tracy, 
William H. Miller, Joseph Bailey, Alexander H. Coffroth, Archi- 
bald McAllister, James T. Hale, Glenni W. Scofield, Amos Myers, 
John L. Dawson, James K. Moorhead, Thomas Williams, Jesse 
Lazear. 

RHODE ISLAND.— Thomas A. Jenckes, Nathan F. Dixon. 

VERMONT.— Frederick E. Woodbridge, Justin S. Morrill, Portus 
Baxter. 

VIRGINIA.— Had Senators but no Representatives. Joseph Segar, 
Lucius H. Chandler and Benjamin M. Kitchen, claimants for 
seats, were not admitted. 

WEST VIRGINIA.— Jacob B. Blair, William G. Brown, Killian V. 
Whaley.* 

WISCONSIN. — James S. Brown, Ithamar C. Sloan, Amasa Cobb, 
Charles A. Eldridge, Ezra Wheeler, Walter D. Mclndoe. 



DELEGATES FROM TERRITORIES 
ARIZONA.— Charles D. Poston. 
COLORADO.— Hiram P. Bennett. 
DAKOTA.— William Jayne (seat successfully contested by John B. S. 

Todd). 
IDAHO.— William H. Wallace. 
MONTANA.— Samuel McLean. 
NEBRASKA.— Samuel G. Daily. 
NEVADA (admitted as a State).— Gordon N. Mott (Henry G. Worth- 

ington was elected Representative when Nevada became a State). 
NEW MEXICO.— Francisco Perea. 
UTAH.— 7?//« F. Kemtey. 
WASHINGTON.— G^^^r^^ E. Cole. 

* The West Virginia Representatives took their seats Dec. 7, 1863. 



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